Virgin Mojito de Lima Agria con Yerbabuena

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Glass jarra or wide pitcher
• •Wooden spoon or muddler
• •Small fine-mesh strainer for the lime juice
• •Long bar spoon for stirring
• •Crushed ice (broken in a clean cloth with a rolling pin if you do not have a crusher)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the simple syrup

   Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely, about three minutes. Do not let it boil hard. You are making syrup, not caramel. Pour it into a glass jar and let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until cold. Warm syrup melts the ice on contact and kills the drink before it starts.

   The syrup keeps in the refrigerator for two weeks. Make a double batch and you have the base for agua de jamaica, limonada, and this mojito all week long.
2. 2

   Wake up the yerbabuena

   Put the yerbabuena leaves in the bottom of a sturdy glass jarra or a wide pitcher. Add four tablespoons of the cooled simple syrup. Press the leaves gently with the back of a wooden spoon or a muddler. You are bruising the leaves, not pulverizing them. Two or three turns of the wrist. If you crush the leaves to a paste, the drink turns bitter and grassy. Yerbabuena is not hierbabuena from a bottle. It is the soft, slightly fuzzy mint that grows in pots on every Merida patio, and it gives up its flavor easily. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Juice the lima agria

   Roll each lima agria firmly on the counter under your palm to break the membranes inside. Cut them in half across the equator and squeeze the juice through a small strainer into a measuring cup. You want about half a cup of juice. Lima agria is not the small Mexican lime and it is not the Persian lime you see in the supermarket. It is the bitter orange of Yucatan, more floral than sour, with a perfume that smells faintly of bergamot. If you cannot find true lima agria outside the peninsula, mix two parts fresh Mexican lime juice with one part fresh orange juice and a small squeeze of grapefruit. It is a compromise, not an upgrade, and the senoras of Merida will know the difference.

4. 4

   Build the base

   Pour the strained lima agria juice into the jarra over the muddled yerbabuena and syrup. Add another four tablespoons of syrup. Stir with a long spoon. Taste it now, before the soda. It should be sharp, bright, and a little sweet, leaning more toward sour than candy. If it tastes flat, add another tablespoon of syrup. If it tastes like candy, add more lime. The drink lives or dies at this taste, before the bubbles dilute everything.

5. 5

   Add the bubbles

   Pour in the chilled mineral water in a slow stream down the side of the jarra to preserve the carbonation. Stir once, gently, from the bottom up. Do not whip it. Aggressive stirring kills the bubbles and leaves you with flat sweetened limeade. Taste one more time and adjust with a splash more syrup or lime if the soda has muted the balance.

6. 6

   Serve over crushed ice

   Fill tall glasses to the top with crushed ice. Crushed, not cubed. Crushed ice is the difference between a mojito and a cold glass of juice. It chills the drink fast, holds the yerbabuena leaves in place, and is the texture every Merida cantina uses. Pour the mojito over the ice. Slip a thin slice of lima agria down the side of the glass and tuck a fresh sprig of yerbabuena at the rim. Slap the yerbabuena once against the back of your hand before you set it in the glass. That slap releases the oils and is the last gesture that says this drink came from a Yucatecan kitchen, not from a hotel bar.

Chef Tips

• •Lima agria is hard to find outside Yucatan and the parts of southern Mexico that border it. Latino markets in larger U.S. cities sometimes carry it under the names 'naranja agria' or 'Seville orange,' which are close cousins. If you have to substitute, use two parts fresh Mexican lime juice to one part fresh orange juice with a small squeeze of pink grapefruit. Document the compromise so you know what to fix next time.
• •Use real yerbabuena, not dried mint from a jar and not the rough spearmint sold for cocktails. If you cannot find yerbabuena at a Latino mercado, grow it. One clay pot on a windowsill will keep you in mojitos all summer.
• •Mineral water with strong carbonation is non-negotiable. Topo Chico, Penafiel, or any glass-bottle agua mineral with serious bubbles. Flat soda water collapses the drink into juice.

Advance Preparation

• •The simple syrup can be made up to two weeks ahead and kept refrigerated. It is the same syrup that will sweeten your agua de jamaica and your limonada, so make extra.
• •The lima agria juice can be squeezed and refrigerated up to four hours ahead, no longer. Past that, the floral perfume dulls and the juice tastes flat.
• •The yerbabuena should be muddled and the soda added only at serving time. Mojitos cannot wait. Build them when the guests are at the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 350g)