#187 Cocktail: Mojito

     Some historians contend that African slaves who worked in the Cuban sugar cane fields during the 19th century were instrumental in the cocktail's origin. Guarapo, the sugar cane juice often used in Mojitos, was a popular drink among the slaves who named it. It never originally contained lime juice.
     There are several theories behind the origin of the name Mojito: one such theory holds that name relates to mojo, a Cuban seasoning made from lime and used to flavour dishes. Another theory is that the name Mojito is simply a derivative of mojadito (Spanish for "a little wet"), the diminutive of mojado ("wet"). Due to the vast influence of immigration from the Canary Islands, the term probably came from the mojo creole marinades adapted in Cuba using citrus (as opposed to traditional Isleno types).
    The Mojito has routinely been presented as a favorite drink of author Ernest Hemingway. It has also often been said that Ernest Hemingway made the bar called La Bodeguita del Medio famous when he became one of its regulars and wrote "My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita" on a wall of the bar.

4 lime wedges

2 to 3 teaspoons granulated sugar

8 to 10 fresh mint leaves

2 ounces white rum

club soda

#186 Cocktail: Mary Pickford

     A Mary Pickford is a Prohibition Era cocktail made with white rum, fresh pineapple juice, grenadine, and Maraschino liqueur. It is served shaken and chilled, often with a Maraschino cherry. Named for Canadian-American film actress Mary Pickford (1892–1979), it is said to have been created for her in the 1920s by either Eddie Woelke or Fred Kaufmann at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba on a trip she took to Havana with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. (Wikipedia)

2 ounces white rum

1 ounce pineapple juice

1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur

1 dash grenadine