A Hungry Bear

Last week we received no fewer than four (4!!) pints of strawberries in our fruit and vegetable delivery from our CSA (TaylOrganic Farms). And they were fat, juicy, perfect strawberries, too - almost too good to eat any other way but plain. But I did manage to spare a few to make one of my favorite summer drinks, a strawberry mojito. It’s really simple - just smash up a couple strawberries with some sugar and mint leaves, add rum and club soda, and slurp away.

Cast of characters: 3-4 strawberries, 3 sprigs of mint, 1 tablespoon simple syrup (or you can use sugar), 1 lime, white rum (I like 10 Cane), club soda.

Start by quartering the lime. Slice the tops off the strawberries and cut into pieces.

Put the strawberries into a cocktail shaker, along with the lime pieces and mint leaves. Add one tablespoon of simple syrup or sugar to the shaker.

If you have a muddler, great, if you don’t - find a kitchen utensil with a blunt end to use. With all the muddling I’ve been doing for the cocktails on this blog, you’d think I would have picked up one of these gadget by now right??

Smash the berries and mint until they are in pieces and have released plenty of juice.

Fill the cocktail shaker with crushed ice, right on top of the berries and lime. Add at least 2 ounces of rum - you should see the liquid come almost to the surface where the ice is.

Shake it up, then pour everything into a tall glass. Top with a splash of club soda.

This is the part where you could put a slice of strawberry on the side for a garnish. Or, if you’re like me, you can just eat the garnish and go straight for the drink.