c

Mojito

You probably haven't had many history lessons that started with pillaging the Caribbean and ended with a
delicious cocktail. But that's one of the things that make the mojito so unique. The mojito may have a trendy
reputation outside of Cuba; however, its origins are anything but chic. Amidst the stories floating about, we
have unveiled the facts, discarded blatant lies, sifted through half-truths, and concluded that the drink now
known as the mojito probably originated in Havana sometime in the late 19th century and gained popularity
beginning in the 1930s.

A mojito-like beverage may have existed much earlier, perhaps as far back as the late 1500s. Legend has it
that Richard Drake, an English pirate, concocted a beverage similar to the mojito by mixing aguardiente
unrefined rum), sugar, lime, and mint. He coined the drink "El Draque" (meaning "the dragon") after the
nickname of his head honcho, Sir Francis Drake, who made a career of terrorizing South America and the
Caribbean. Drake used Cuba as a base island, which is seemingly how the drink arrived there. The Draque
cocktail can also be found in some other Latin American countries, including Mexico, Columbia, and
Venezuela - likely a tribute to Drake's plundering of those countries.

El Draque also referred to as the "Draquecito" or "little dragon," became a popular drink among the working -
class in Cuba as far back as the early 19th century. Cuban story-teller Ramón de Palma referred to the
Draquecito in an 1838 book; the main character drank one of the cocktails daily as a preventive medicine.

The Great Debate

some historians suggest that slaves working in Cuban sugar cane fields in the late 19th century invented the
mojito. In fact, this story seems to be related to or, more likely, confused with the origin of the daiquiri, the
popular Cuban cocktail made with rum, lime juice, and sugar.

Nevertheless, African slaves may have played some part in the mojito's history: the slaves seemingly
contributed to naming guarapo (sugar cane juice), the sweet nectar that is so vital to the taste of the mojito.
African slaves working in Cuban sugar cane fields longed for a drink from their homeland, made from corn
and yucca. As a substitute, they crushed sugar cane stalks, releasing and drinking the sweet liquid. The
Spanish referred to this juice as jarabe, meaning "nectar" or "syrup." The Africans, not knowing Spanish,
understood this word as "garapa." Thinking that the slaves were saying "guarapo," the Cubans created this
Spanish word for sugar cane juice.

Apart from drinking jarabe, or the newly-termed guarapo, slaves often drank aguardiente as an escape. The
stories attributing the invention of the mojito to slaves who were said to have mixed aguardiente with
guarapo likely confuse these two anecdotes. The origin of the mojito has also been confused with the origin
of the daiquiri, which some say was invented by engineers working in Daiquiri, a beach near Santiago, Cuba.

Interestingly, the famous French chef and historian Brillat-Savarin mentions sugar cane juice in his 1825
encyclopaedic treatise Physiology of Taste, in which he compiles and discusses food, cooking, and eating.
As sugar cane production modernized, guarapo was fermented and purified with lime (the mineral, not the
fruit!), resulting in the modern form of guarapo. Cubans drank guarapo served over ice as a refreshing drink.
Enjoyed throughout many Latin cultures, guarapo is still served in many Latin cafeterias.

Guarapo is also the forefather to rum, because juice pressed from sugar cane can be distilled into rum.
Since sugar cane (and eventually rum) were widely available in Cuba, the country understandably became
known for its sweet, rum-based drinks, like the daiquiri. Interestingly, in Havana, the daiquiri, not the mojito,
was the drink of choice. The daiquiri became popular in Havana before the mojito, even though the mojito's
predecessor, the Draque, was being knocked back long before the daiquiri entered the scene.

Since the daiquiri consists of rum, lime juice, sugar and shaved ice, some suggest that the mojito simply
evolved from the daiquiri. Some of the bars popular in Havana at the time of the Cuban dawn of the mojito
were La Floridita (most famous for the daiquiri), Slop py Joes, and Hotel Sevilla. The bars that served the
daiquiri eventually offered the mojito. Although the ingredients are similar, the preparation of the mojito
(what makes it so special) is very different from the daiquiri.

Page 1 of 2
c

Other counts of the drink's inception consider the mojito an offspring of Kentucky's mint julep, which is
made with bourbon, sugar, and mint. In fact, the mojito (or its ancestor) is likely the forerunner to the mint
julep we so love to drink in Kentucky. The first mint julep was made with rum, not bourbon. In Stanley Arthur
Clisby's 1937 book, Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em, he provides a recipe for a rum mint
julep, calling it the original mint julep that arrived in Louisiana in 1793 at the same time white aristocrats
expelled from San Domingo settled in New Orleans.

The earliest "mojito" recipes we have found are from 1931 and 1936 editions of a Sloppy Joe's Bar Manual.
Cuban story-teller Federico Villoch also mentioned a recipe for the mojito in a 1940 book. Angel Mar tinez
opened La Bodeguita del Medio in 1942 as a general store and later converted it into a restaurant and bar in
1946, where the mojito is claimed to have gained popularity in Havana. Frequenting the bar were students,
musicians, and soon-to-be celebrities, including Ernest Hemingway, Bridget Bardot, and Nat King Cole. The
bar is now a popular tourist stop in Havana.

Just 90 miles from Cuba, Key West eventually embraced the mojito. Due to their geographic proximity, there
was a history of people travelling between Cuba and Key West - the rise of the Cuban cigar industry in the
late 19th century in Key West and the transportation of beer and rum from Cuba during Prohibition. Perhaps
Ernest Hemingway, a supposed mojito drinker, was partly responsible for introducing the drink to Key West,
as he moved to Key West in 1928 and was known to have spent a great deal of time between Cuba and Key
West in the 1930s. Sloppy Joe's opened its Key West location in 1933, about the time mojitos were probably
first being served. Interestingly, Hemingway was a friend and fishing buddy of Joe Russell, the owner of
Sloppy Joes.

The mojito made its way to Miami and, made popular by the trendy South Beach scene, has become the
drink of choice in other metropolitan areas such as New York and San Francisco by patrons seeking the
classic cocktail. The trend in Nuevo Latino cuisine in the early 1990s also increased public exposure to the
cocktail.

Page 2 of 2