I have a very active mint plant in my garden. It was planted a year ago and although it produced spindly shoots throughout winter, it is very happy to feel spring in the air.
After spending several hours in my garden (weeding, watering, wacking) I cut back the sad winter sprigs of mint along with some beautiful spring leaves.The best use case for mint on a Sunday afternoon is a mojito. I didn’t know if I had the ingredients to execute such a endeavor but I decided to give it a whirl.
Did I have simple sugar? No. But I did have Elderflower Syrup. Hmm, sounds like a good substitution. I only had a splash of white rum, enough for a half mojito. I muddled the mint with the syrup, added ice cubes and poured in the rum. Wow, that was really good.
DH came home from chauffeuring son home from symphony practice and asked for one of these drinks since he didn’t get one in the afternoon. Initially, I balked at going out at 9pm to cut more mint to prepare the drink but decided this could only work to my advantage. When I ventured into the garden with a flashlight to cut more mint, I found a huge caterpillar feasting on a nearby chive and brought it in for entertainment purposes. It will find a nice home in my compost pile.
With no more white rum, I pulled out the spiced rum. OK, is this really a mojito if I use elderflower syrup and spiced rum instead of simple syrup and white rum? Yum! It was really tasty. I wondered if I could name a new drink and fantasized about naming this tasty drink myself and began the google search for: mint, elderflower, spiced rum. Sure enough, someone had already named it. Alas, it’s not original, but it tastes just fine.
