You're Doing It All Wrong - How To Mint Your Mojito & Julep

0:00 Are you overworking your mint while you're trying to cool down?

0:01 [music] Then you're doing it all wrong.

0:03 My name's Harry with Chowhound.

0:05 We're going to go through two classic recipes

0:07 where [music] mint is the star of the show.

0:08 What I like to do is find my favorite pieces of mint here,

0:12 make sure that they don't have any blemishes,

0:13 [music] pick some of the stray leaves off,

0:16 and you want to maintain a really nice beautiful flourish on the top here.

0:21 This is a really great example.

0:22 [music] You want something about this size so that you have

0:25 the main kind of tuft only beautiful sexy mints for us.

0:29 So, what we're going to do is slowly continue to make a pile here.

0:33 Make note that I'm kind of keeping all of the tufts of this mint equal.

0:36 [music] With all of the discarded mints, we're going to save that here,

0:40 and we'll eventually do the exact same thing

0:42 that we're going to do with this mint.

0:43 That looks pretty good to me.

0:45 Now, we'll make the first incision.

0:47 When we make the cut, we want to make sure that we get all the stems clear.

0:51 So, we're going to take that.

0:53 Discard all of the loose stems here,

0:55 and then we're going to [music] take a bucket filled with water.

0:59 Now, what we're going to do is we're going to cover this entire thing with ice.

1:03 So, that the [snorts] ice pushes down,

1:05 and these stems [music] here at the bottom,

1:07 you can see are just down there soaking it all up and drinking.

1:10 [music] This is called shocking the mint.

1:13 This is the first step in keeping mint like a pro.

1:16 If you don't shock your mint, you will have mint that [music] looks like this.

1:21 And it's just a little bit sad,

1:23 and it's going to continue to kind of fall apart.

1:26 It will begin to oxidize, and after it oxidizes,

1:29 it starts to taste kind of as uh the French say garbagy.

1:34 You can test your mint really easily [music] by smacking it.

1:39 And it'll wake the oils up,

1:40 and it really perfumes the air, and it perfumes [music] the cocktail.

1:43 This needs to sit for about 5 or 10 minutes

1:46 just so that it can soak up a lot of liquid,

1:48 get very cold, and after this is shocked and ready to go,

1:52 we'll pull it and process it the rest of the way.

1:55 I also like to do the exact same thing to this.

1:57 Fill that vessel with water as well.

1:59 The leaves, just like the rest of the core of the plant, is still alive.

2:04 Uh they're going to continue drinking.

2:05 They're going to continue taking in moisture.

2:07 We're going to use this to press into the syrup here

2:10 when we're making our mojito and we're making a mint julep.

2:13 It's been about 15 minutes.

2:15 We have our ice and our mint here.

2:17 I'm going to go ahead and dump this and reserve the mint, of course.

2:23 Then we're going to find our container [music]

2:24 that we're going to hold the mint in.

2:26 And in this container, we're going to put cold water.

2:30 And how do we get it cold?

2:32 We use ice.

2:33 Couple cubes at the bottom.

2:34 I put cold water in the bottom of this cup,

2:36 and this will last you as a bouquet on the side

2:39 of your bar or at your home bar all night.

2:42 Any reserve mint that you have, I like to take a wet paper towel,

2:45 wrap the mint in, and then stick it in a Ziploc bag.

2:48 That'll hold it overnight up to 3 days even after it's been cut.

2:52 Just make sure that those stems are covered because they will continue to drink.

2:55 Our first cocktail that we're going to make today is called the mint julep.

2:58 It's one of my absolute favorite cocktails.

3:00 It was in 1939 adopted as the official drink of the Kentucky Derby,

3:06 and now they drink over 120,000 of those in a single event,

3:10 which is absolutely insane.

3:12 Yes, I pull out my shaker tin, although we're not going to shake this.

3:16 [music] We're going to take this, and we're going to procure a handful of mint.

3:20 Uh I like to do about eight of them.

3:22 That's three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one to grow on.

3:29 I'm going to pull my[ __] out,

3:31 and we're [music] going to measure out a half an ounce of rich Demerara.

3:35 Demerara is a less refined form of sugar [music] than our normal table sugar.

3:40 It has a higher percentage of molasses in there.

3:43 I'm going to use that half an ounce of this.

3:45 This is double [music] rich,

3:46 meaning I use two parts Demerara and one part water, and that is by weight.

3:51 Please use a scale.

3:53 Uh we don't want to eyeball this or use any kind of volume measurement.

3:56 From there, we're going to pull out our muddler.

3:59 Now, this is a very important.

4:00 Most muddlers are okay to go with.

4:02 Uh the thing I would stay away from, well especially when using mint,

4:06 is anything with teeth.

4:08 Anything that's really going to chew this stuff and break it apart.

4:12 We want to take the sugar and the mint,

4:13 and we're going to press this mint gently

4:16 into the Demerara here so that all of the oils

4:19 of the mint release into that dem and create

4:24 a really beautiful herbaceous very fresh release of those oils.

4:30 You can see there that it's pressed gently,

4:33 and even some of the Demerara is starting to turn a bit green.

4:36 That's a pretty good sign that we're getting a lot of oil release there.

4:39 [music] Realistically, you're going to do this a handful of times,

4:43 start making cocktails for your friends,

4:45 you'll start to pick up a really good idea about

4:47 when this is ready and when this is good to go.

4:49 You know you've gone too far when the leaves [music] are a pulp.

4:54 They're brown looking.

4:56 They've been crushed and mangled.

4:58 The last thing that you want to do is really shred these leaves

5:02 because [music] they're going to produce an enzyme that, again, tastes garbagy.

5:07 Now, my favorite part.

5:10 We're going to add the whiskey.

5:11 And the whiskey that I usually run

5:12 toward uh Woodford Reserve for our mint julep.

5:16 We're going to add [music] three full

5:17 ounces of Woodford Reserve into this cocktail.

5:21 The spirit does a really wonderful secondary [music]

5:25 action aside from flavoring our mint julep with delicious whiskey,

5:29 in stopping any enzymatic reaction [music] from continuing to happen,

5:33 which is lovely, and we love that.

5:35 I don't want to use anything weeded.

5:37 I [music] think rye works really beautifully alongside mint.

5:41 So, whatever whiskey you decide to [music] go with, shoot for something

5:45 that has a rye complimentary uh in a bourbon mash bill.

5:48 [music] I would stick with bourbon for this.

5:50 Usually, I'm a rye fan.

5:52 I love rye whiskey.

5:53 Wheat just is too soft and doesn't have

5:56 a tendency [music] to compliment the mint very well.

5:58 Next, time for ice.

6:00 We're going to dump that right in there, and we're going to cover it.

6:03 Make sure you get a good [music] connective seal there.

6:06 The cold air inside's going to do the rest.

6:08 It sucks air in and makes it [music] airtight.

6:12 And instead of shaking it,

6:13 we're just going to roll this, chill it, and dilute it.

6:17 You don't want to shake it.

6:18 It's a bad idea.

6:19 Don't shake anything unless it has citrus.

6:21 Sometimes cream is a good way to go, but generally speaking,

6:25 you don't want to shake a cocktail unless it has citrus in it.

6:28 Now, to prep our julep cup,

6:32 which is a [music] preferably silver cup as they use in the Kentucky Derby,

6:38 we are going to fill a Lewis bag.

6:41 Yes, this is called a Lewis bag.

6:44 Uh with ice, and we are going to take a very large hammer,

6:49 and we're going to smash it.

6:52 Okay, you want to make sure that you get this nice and crushed.

6:58 The crushed ice is important.

7:00 This is a classic build on a classic cocktail,

7:02 and crushed ice is what really [music] makes this recipe pop.

7:06 It's what takes the mint julep from [music] being a very boozy unwieldy

7:12 sort of drink to being a really

7:14 beautiful [music] refreshing surprisingly morning ready cocktail.

7:19 Before I add my crushed ice into our julep [music] cup,

7:21 I do like to throw a couple of large ice cubes [snorts] at the bottom there.

7:26 We have our straws, which we're going to put two in.

7:29 And then we're going to take our julep [music] strainer.

7:33 This is so named because it's a great tool for creating a mint julep here.

7:38 [music] We are going to put a dome of ice

7:40 over the top of this, shaping it with our hand.

7:43 You really want to have a nice tuft of ice [music] over the top there,

7:48 and that is what we're after.

7:49 We want this thing to be very snow coney,

7:52 very tight on top, but still loose and melty.

7:56 Grab our chilled cocktail, open our tins up,

8:01 and we [music] are going to take that same julep strainer

8:04 over the top and pour slowly over the top of that cone.

8:09 You can see all of that water is going [music] right in there,

8:12 and also why we didn't want to over dilute

8:15 by fully stirring it or, God forbid, shaking it.

8:20 Just until the top there.

8:22 You might be asking, why did I put two straws in?

8:25 We are going to take our mint.

8:28 Before you take your mint, always smack it.

8:31 You always want to spank that mint and wake it back up.

8:34 That's going to release those oils for you.

8:37 Pull that straw out, and in goes our mint.

8:42 And then finally, we're going to dust this with a bit of powdered sugar.

8:48 And that is our mint julep.

8:53 Now, it's time to enjoy [music] the fruits of our labor.

8:56 Taste this to make sure that we're on point.

9:00 Mhm.

9:02 It's perfect.

9:02 The mint's present.

9:03 You want to make sure that that mint is there, and it pops.

9:07 The bourbon's not pushing it around too [music] much,

9:09 even though we use such a large amount.

9:11 It's still very delicate in the background.

9:14 The [music] amount of dilution that we have with the ice is where we want,

9:18 and we can see that it [music]

9:20 maintains that really beautiful dome over the top.

9:22 Make this in mass and share it with all your friends.

9:28 Cheers.

9:29 Next up on the agenda for today, we're going to make a mojito.

9:32 First, we're going to go back to mint.

9:34 We're going to add about eight to 10 pieces

9:37 of our mint into the bottom of the shaker tin.

9:39 Next up, we're going to take our simple syrup.

9:42 I like to use simple syrup for this recipe as opposed to Demerara

9:45 or turbinado or any other kind of sugar because I like the simplicity.

9:49 I like the simplicity that it gives you.

9:51 It lets the mint really kind of shine and do the talking.

9:55 As we did with the mint julep, we're going to take our muddler and we're going

10:00 to just gently press this mint into the simple syrup.

10:04 We want the oils again to be released into the sugar at the bottom of the cup,

10:09 but we don't want to grind that mint down.

10:12 We don't want to release any kind of enzymes

10:15 that would again make the cocktail taste rather garbage-y.

10:18 After we have muddled sufficiently,

10:22 we're going to pull our muddler out and add the spirit.

10:26 The spirit is rum.

10:28 Specifically, I like to use Planteray 3 Star.

10:31 This is a really light pretty rum while still having enough complexity

10:36 from the three separate islands in the blend

10:39 to give it some really pretty character,

10:42 but not bully the mint and not bully the [music]

10:43 rest of the cocktail into doing what it wants.

10:46 Last, lime juice.

10:48 We're going to do 3/4 [music] of an ounce here.

10:51 That's fresh lime juice.

10:52 Fresher the better.

10:53 You can let that sit for up to 3 days.

10:55 [music] At the end of the third day,

10:57 you're going to start to taste a little bit of oxidation, so we don't want.

11:00 Again, garbage-y cocktails are doing it wrong.

11:03 The last ingredient that I'm going to use in this is kind of magic ingredient.

11:07 I use [music] saline in almost everything that I make,

11:10 but three drops of saline and it elicits some really beautiful results.

11:16 Specifically in shaking [music] cocktails, I love it.

11:18 It shouldn't be the dominant flavor.

11:21 You shouldn't even be able to sense [music] that it's there.

11:23 Anyway, we have our cocktail combined and ready to go in our shaker tin.

11:28 We're going to add ice and shake.

11:30 First, always prepare your glass when you're making a cocktail ahead of time.

11:35 This will guarantee that you have everything

11:37 ready and that there are no surprises.

11:40 Even a short rest is enough to kind of degrade

11:43 the quality of the drink that you just made.

11:47 So, it's imperative that you get this from the shaker

11:50 tin into the [music] glass as soon as possible.

11:53 There are three real reasons why we're going to shake this.

11:55 The first is dilution.

11:56 It's going to water the rum, the lime, and the sugar down.

11:59 It's going to chill it.

12:01 The ice is going [music] to work to bring

12:02 this temperature down very rapidly as we're shaking this thing.

12:06 The last is aeration.

12:07 It's going to add a lot of air as we're shaking this [music] thing up.

12:10 Here we go.

12:15 Notice I give this thing a little bit of movement here as we're shaking.

12:18 Want to get a lot of air INTO THIS THING.

12:26 I LIKE TO SHAKE UNTIL WE DEVELOP A little bit of a frost over the top here.

12:31 Different ice cubes call for different things.

12:34 The more that you shake cocktails,

12:35 the more that you do this, the better you'll get at judging

12:38 when it's been diluted and when it's been shaken and chilled properly.

12:42 This starts to develop a little frost over the side,

12:45 which is a really good tell and why I really like to use metal shakers

12:50 as opposed to any kind of glass situation that is a little bit more old school,

12:55 I think at this point.

12:56 Double strain this.

12:57 I use a tea strainer as we're straining.

13:00 That ensures that we take any of those tiny little mint chunks out.

13:03 We don't want to be sipping this cocktail and get

13:05 a big chunk of mint stuck in our lip.

13:07 That's gross.

13:09 And then lastly, we're going to garnish it.

13:12 So, I like to take some mint, big sexy tuft of mint.

13:15 Ooh, that might be too sexy.

13:17 We don't want to get too sexy, just sexy enough.

13:20 Uh and smack it.

13:22 This mint is going to release its oils and express the air around the cocktail.

13:26 Press that right in there.

13:28 And we're going to take our [music] straw and add it into the cocktail.

13:32 And there we have it, a mojito for [music] the ages.

13:43 Refreshing.

13:44 This is perfect.

13:45 What a beautiful cocktail.

13:46 It just cannot get better for the spring and summer on a patio or on a deck.

13:50 Now, you could add soda to this.

13:53 I am a purist when it comes to my mojito.

13:56 I did not add soda.

13:58 Feel free to add a little bit of soda though if you want to lengthen it.

14:01 It might take a little bit larger of a glass.

14:04 Couple key points to remember when we're talking about mint, shock that mint.

14:08 Cut the mint.

14:09 The mint is alive.

14:10 You want to cut those stems off [music] and drop

14:12 it immediately into water as soon as you can.

14:14 You want to give that an ice bath.

14:16 Make sure that it sits there for about 5 to [music] 15 minutes.

14:19 Pull the mint out and then put it into your cup

14:22 and have that there ready to continue [music] the drink.

14:25 The mint will stay vibrant over the entire course of the day.

14:29 When you're making your cocktails, always remember don't over muddle.

14:32 You don't want this thing to get completely beat up.

14:34 You want to be soft, gentle,

14:35 and just press the oils out into the sugar that you're using.

14:39 Cheers.

14:40 Stay minty.