Zero-Proof · Zero-proof
Virgin Mojito
All the mint, lime, and fizz — none of the morning after.
How to order it: Muddled mint, fresh lime, soda, restraint on the syrup.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- ¾ oz lime juice
- 2 tsp sugar; 8 mint leaves
- Muddle gently; fill with ice
- Top with soda water
- Mint crown; tall glass
The story
The mojito's roots run deep into Cuba — by most tellings back to El Draque, a rough sixteenth-century mix of cane spirit, lime, mint, and sugar associated, perhaps generously, with the privateer Francis Drake's crew. Havana refined it over centuries into the canonical highball. Strip out the rum and something interesting happens: the drink barely misses it. Mint, lime, sugar, and soda were always the architecture; the spirit was merely a tenant. That is why the virgin mojito became the gateway drink of the zero-proof movement — no awkward substitutions, no apology, just a glass that smells like a Havana courtyard and still lets you drive home. Some classics, it turns out, were sober all along.
Classic variation
The Virgin Mojito is a riff on a classic. Meet the original:
Adjacent pours