What's the proper way to muddle mint for a julep or mojito?

Question

Not a huge fan of the mojito, but my wife loves 'em. A good julep is another matter... But mine have a bad tendency to end up with lots of little mint pieces that get stuck in my teeth. So what's the proper way to prepare the mint in these drinks without ending up with a green leafy mess?

Answer 1

It's best to use a wooden pestle, but the back end of a wooden utensil can get the job done. Muddle the lime and sugar in the bottom of the glass first. The goal is to get a good syrup. Put a bit of mint (2 leaves) in last and lightly muddle so as not to break them up into bits. Add your ice to the top of the glass. Add your Rum, and then add your Club Soda then mix by moving your utensil up and down through the ice. Add a couple of mint leaves during this process. The ice will help bruise the mint during the mix. Finally, take about 12 mint leaves in your hands. Clap your hands together to bruise the leaves helping to induce the mint juice/flavor out. (I'll bet that rolling pin method would work well here). Jam the leaves down the ice with your utensil.

Answer 2

This site makes a case for not muddling the mint at all; muddled mint can give "really muddy, dirty flavors," according to their expert, Leo Robitschek of The NoMad and Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan. If you're looking to avoid bits of mint in your teeth, they have two suggestions:

• Make a mint simple syrup by "steeping mint leaves in hot water for about 5 minutes, and then mixing the strained liquid with equal parts of sugar for a simple syrup" or, alternately, cold-steeping mint in simple syrup for a few days

or

• Make mint burbon in an iSi whipped cream canister using what they call the Dave Arnold method:

We use 35 grams of mint leaves in 1 L bottle of bourbon. Charge the canister twice with nitrous oxide and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. This ensures that the nitrous travels through the canister into the mint leaves. The infusion actually happens when you vent (release the nitrous gas) the canister. The nitrous rushes out into the bourbon, bringing all of the sweet aromatic compounds in the mint, and infusing it into the bourbon. The great thing is that using this technique eliminates any bitter, muddy, or tannic flavors that you may get from muddling or over extracting mint."

Answer 3

The classic mistake when making a Mojito or a Julep is to over muddle the mint. Pounding away at the mint will release so much flavour from it, that you won't taste any of the other ingredients. A perfect Mojito should comprise a balance of flavours. The other main constituents do not have a particularly strong flavour, so its very easy to swamp them with mint and end up with a glass of alcoholic toothpaste. Mojito = Rum, Mint and Lime. Julep's are a little more tolerant, due to the richer flavours of the other ingredients, but the same basic principles still apply.

Don't overdo the amount of mint you add. Leaves from one decent sprig of mint will do. Muddle the mint gently for about ten seconds. You want to bruise the leaves and release a little bit of flavour, but not grind them into a pulp.

Finishing off a Mojito properly is also essential. You only need a splash of soda. Adding more than a shot will just dilute the ingredients and destroy the subtle flavours. Most importantly, don't forget to taste the drink after you've made it, even if its for someone else! This is the best way to learn and improve your mixing and muddling techniques. It is also sometimes possible to rescue an imperfect drink (eg. by adding a touch of extra lime juice if its too sweet) if really necessary.

Answer 4

When we make mojitos, we put the lime, sugar, and mint into the glass then crush it with a wooden spoon. Do this separately for each drink.

This is pretty time consuming which isn't a problem when you're making 1 or 2 glasses. If you're making more, you may want to use another method.

Answer 5

I haven't had to muddle mint but I found this forum that tells you how. It says to bruise the mint but not to break it up. They recommend using a muddler, a pestle or the end of a rolling pin or the back of a spoon.