Mojito

Isn’t a mocktail just a soft drink?

It wasn’t until I first started learning about mocktail goals that I realized the mimicry involved has a culinary purpose which soft drink developers don’t have to think about.

Dissecting flavor to upstage the missing alcohol.

First “flavor” needs to be defined. Some experts use science-based explanations while others go holistic. Then there’s how a hard drink achieves its flavor because of: 1) the individual flavor of the alcohol; and 2) the flavor combination of the cocktail’s non-alcoholic ingredients.

One of my first reads about mocktail goals was a Food & Wine article that sparked the inspiration for this mojito, not to mention my piloncillo syrup.

Using ingredients I already had because I forgot the club soda, I took the green light from alcoholic and non-alcoholic mojito recipes and made a ginger ale and a lemon-lime mojito with the below quantities.

Ginger No-jito from Difford’s Guide

• Lime juice
• 2:1 sugar syrup
• Fresh mint leaves
• Ginger beer (or ginger ale or lemon-lime soda)

Equipment: muddler, bar spoon

Me: The ginger ale mojito smells more minty and is surprisingly tart over sweet compared to its lemon-lime cuzzo. The piloncillo syrup in the lemon-lime version wasn’t as obvious, which I couldn’t appreciate.

GJ: The ginger ale one is minty, tart, sweet, and really refreshing. I kinda like how the lemon-lime one is sweeter. Neither drink has that molasses taste I get from the syrup on its own.

Another round? A weekly of each for GJ with a preference for the lemon-lime mojito. A monthly ginger ale mojito and a twice monthly lemon-lime one for me. We’ll also take a third round with club soda.