Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Mojito
Havana's classic highball: white rum, lime, sugar, and muddled mint topped with soda.
Cuban · easy · serves 1
prep 5 min · cook 0 min
~171 cal · 0g protein · 11g carbs · 0g fat · 1g fiber · 9g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The mojito is Havana's most famous cocktail, a bright, herbaceous highball with roots said to reach back centuries to a medicinal rum drink taken by sailors. It became a symbol of Cuban leisure and, later, of the island's golden-age glamour.
It is built directly in the glass: fresh mint is gently muddled with sugar and lime to release its oils, then white rum and ice go in and the whole thing is topped with soda water. The mint should be bruised, not shredded, for aroma without bitterness.
Cool, minty, and effervescent, the mojito is the taste of a Cuban afternoon, sipped slowly in the heat. Refreshing and endlessly popular, it carries the easy, sun-soaked spirit of Havana in every glass.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 1
10-12 fresh mint leaves
1/2 lime, juiced
2 tsp sugar
2 oz white rum
to top soda water
a handful crushed ice
Instructions
1
Gently muddle the mint with the sugar and lime juice in a tall glass, press, don't shred.
2
Fill the glass with crushed ice.
3
Pour over the rum and stir.
4
Top with soda water.
5
Garnish with a mint sprig and serve with a straw.
Havana tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Havana. Havana has a Chinese quarter that the rest of the island does not. Contract labourers arrived from southern China from the middle of the nineteenth century, and the Barrio Chino and the restaurants around it left a mark on the capital's cooking you will not find out in the provinces.
🗺️
Cuba. Casabe, the flat round bread pressed from bitter cassava, predates the Spanish entirely and is still made the old way: the tuber grated, the poisonous juice squeezed out, the flour sifted and baked on a hot plate. UNESCO inscribed the practice in 2024 in a joint nomination with the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cuba
Ropa ViejaBeef braised and shredded into a rich tomato-pepper sofrito, Cuba’s national dish, named "old clothes."
Moros y CristianosBlack beans and white rice cooked together in one pot with a cumin-scented sofrito until every grain turns dusky and savory, the everyday soul of the Cuban table.
Tostada Cubana con Café con LecheButtered Cuban bread pressed flat and crisp, cut into batons for dunking into sweet, milky espresso, the quintessential Havana breakfast.
Browse all Cuba recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Cuba meal
Arroz con Pollo a la CubanaDinner
Pastelitos de GuayabaDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Mojito?
Havana's classic highball: white rum, lime, sugar, and muddled mint topped with soda.
Where does Mojito come from?
Mojito is a Cuban dish from Havana, Cuba.
Can Mojito be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mojito recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mojito safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mojito take to make?
About 5 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 1.
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