The Bajito

It's springtime in the San Francisco Bay Area, which means that the days are getting longer, the rains are plentiful, and green things start to grow. And in my case, green things include mint. A lot of mint. So much mint, in fact, that I had to dig up quite a bit of it in order to rescue my garden from its threatening advances. But I saved a big bouquet for mojitos, and this drink.

I really like mojitos. Mint, lime, rum. Simple, but delicious. It's why I planted that darn mint in the first place. So this drink already sounded interesting. It's a Bajito.

The recipe goes as follows:

4 fresh mint leaves (spearmint from the garden)
4 fresh basil leaves (from the grocery store--my basil hasn't grown yet)
5 slices lime
1 Tbsp simple syrup
3 oz dark rum (Gosling's Black Seal)

Muddle mint, basil, lime, and sugar in a shaker. Add ice and rum. Shake and strain into an ice-filled glass.

Admittedly, the appearance of this drink is, well, a bit like muddy water. But it was DAMN GOOD. The only downside here is that the drink is pretty strong, so one sucks it right down in about two minutes, lips smacking.

I decided to make another version.
This one was made like a regular mojito, by muddling the herbs and lime right into the glass, topping with ice, rum, and some club soda to stretch out the experience. Still pretty damn good, plus you get to eat the leaves when all the tasty drink is gone.

It looks even worse, though. It looks...as if one just dunked a glass right into a swamp, scooped up some murky water and riverbed plantlife, and added a stirrer.