The Mojito

I cannot sing more loudly the praises of the Mojito. It has become my standard "weekend" drink. They are one of the few alcoholic beverages that I feel are perfectly appropriate for the daylight hours.

My recipe:
1.5 oz white rum (Bacardi)
1 Tbs sugar (I will occasionally use Splenda to cut out the empty calories)
1/2 lime
a few springs of mint (fresh from the garden!)

Into a highball glass, juice the lime and add the sugar and mint. Muddle. I used to do this with the handle end of a wooden spoon, but now I have a proper muddler. The proper muddler makes nice small pieces of mint that distribute through the drink, which is nice. The kind I have is wooden (to spare the glassware) with a spiky bottom.
Add ice, rum, and top with club soda. Add a stirrer and serve.

Aaaaaaaahhhh!!

By the way, a great source for cocktail stirrers is American Science and Surplus. At $.50/glass rod, it's a great deal for simple, classic stirrers. That is a great site, for many reasons. I'm a big fan of the labware section. You can find decanters, funnels, corks, glass straws, and whatever else they happen to have in stock. Go ahead, waste an hour or so reading through the whimsical product descriptions.