Earlier this week, I brought you tales of classic mojitos. Now I come to you with a variation on the theme. Introducing the jalapeño green tea mojito, a cocktail invented by my friend Sly and me and patterned after the wonderful green tea mojito, which was also featured on this here blog (with me in a Vanilla Ice costume, no less).
After the jump, check out this very special Quaff — special because my parents were present for the entire experience…
Can’t make a jalapeño green tea mojito without green tea! You simply CANNOT. Therefore, here I am setting up the tea in my “kettle.”
Some errant tomatoes capture the fancy of Sly. These are in fact the same tomatoes that are heavily featured on my Vine. Example here.
The water heats up. My stovetop is shockingly NOT hideous.
The mis-en-place, obvs.
Showing off the soon-to-be-filled pitcher proudly. Meanwhile, my dad lingers in the background.
Time to get working. First things first: squeeze some lime juice.
Macro shot!
It’s a thrilling process.
As usual, Sly marvels at my freezer. One of these days I’m going to cook those Hebrew Nationals.
More freezer madness.
The water has come to a boil! Huzzah!
Time for a tea bath.
In a brilliant example of multitasking, I toss a frozen jalapeño into the toaster to thaw/roast it.
While the tea steeps and the jalapeño comes to life, I get to work tearing up mint leaves. It smells freshy. Perhaps… minty.
The delicate jalapeño removal process.
Time to chop up the aforementioned jalapeño.
Success!
The jalapeño joins the mint and lime juice in the pitcher. A few teaspoons of sugar follow. We decide to go conservative with the sugar, a decision that later proves to be QUITE controversial.
Time to bring out Bette Muddler.
Muddle muddle muddle…
That’s what we wind up with.
I fill the pitcher with ice, and then it’s time to get our rum on.
Yo ho ho, etc.
In goes the tea…
If you can remember to make the tea ahead of time, that would be good. Otherwise, you’ll wind up diluting the drink with the melted ice, like we did.
Stirring the pitcher with a chopstick — a favorite method of Julia Child’s, Sly is happy to inform me.
At last, the pitcher is ready. Time to taste…
Here we go. Please do not be disturbed by the mojito’s resemblance to beer… or urine.
Drumroll, please…
I’m quite happy!
Sly captures me as I don shoes for sunset mojitos on the roof.
And what a fine sunset it is!
Here’s a pic of me and my parents. However, they don’t want to be seen on the blog; so their identities have been obscured.
THE VERDICT:
Mixed! Sly and I absolutely loved the jalapeño green tea mojitos, but my parents had polite objects. My dad felt the cocktail was too minty and too peppery. My mother, meanwhile, wanted something sweeter. To be fair, we were very conservative with the sugar, and the end product tasted more like green tea with rum and jalapeño than an actual mojito; so I do understand my mother’s point, given that she was expecting a totally different drink.
Nevertheless, my recommendation is to simply monitor the sugar to your liking.
And remember one thing:
Yummy looking toddy! But way too labor intensive. I will stick with vodka tonics!