Skip to main content

Don’t muddle mint for your next mojito — do this instead

There are better alternatives to muddling

Mojito on a bar ready to serve
Tatyana Vega / Unsplash

If you’re a cocktail fan (even if you simply order them at a bar instead of making them at home), you’re probably well aware of the act of muddling. It’s a popular way to extract flavor, and it’s a technique that is used in drinks like the classic Old Fashioned, the Mojito, and many more. But what exactly is muddling? Also, perhaps you’re just better off doing something else instead to get that much-needed flavor.

What is a muddler?

Muddler
iStock

There are a lot of tools that are extremely important to bartenders. This includes a shaker, strainer, bar spoon, jigger, and a muddler. Today, we’re most interested in the latter.

Recommended Videos

If you’ve made cocktails at home or your frequent cocktail bars, you’ve seen a muddler. This long-handled tool is usually wooden or is either metal, plastic, or some other material and has a rubber end for muddling. It’s used for (you guessed it) muddling and is a must-have for any bartender. You can’t make some of the most iconic cocktails without it.

What is muddling?

Mojito
Tata Zaremba / Unsplash

Now that you know what a muddler is, it’s time to learn what it’s used for. Muddling is a technique used by bartenders and mixologists to smash various herbs, granulated sugar, and other ingredients to extract flavors. In an Old Fashioned, bitters, water, and sugar are muddled before ice and rye or bourbon whiskey are added.

When preparing a Caipirinha (the official drink of Brazil), lime wedges and granulated sugar are muddled together before ice and Cachaça are added to complete the drink. We can’t forget possibly the most well-known muddled cocktail: the iconic, flavorful Mojito.

To make this popular cocktail, sugar, lime juice, and mint are muddled before rum, soda water, and ice are added to complete this fresh, refreshing, summery drink. But, when it comes to the mojito specifically, some bartenders believe that there’s a better way to extract the mint flavor without creating a mushy paste of lime, sugar, and leaves.

Alternatives to muddling

Mojito garnished with mint and limes
Alejandro Photography / Getty Images

Muddling is very common in the cocktail world, but using this technique might mean you’re missing out on some flavor. Proper muddling is a game of tempered patience. If you’re just haphazardly mashing sugar and mint leaves, you’re going to just create a granulated, minty mess.

While aggressively smashing herbs and leaves will extract more beneficial flavors, it also brings forth vegetal, bitter, organic, and downright bad flavors as well. Luckily, there are alternatives. You can use a rolling pin to extract flavor without absolutely pulverizing the herbs. You can also use a spoon to gently crush the leaves and stop before they’re destroyed.

There’s also the alternative of infusing your spirit with the ingredient you plan to muddle. In this case mint. It won’t be as fresh, but you’ll get a heavy dose of mint in your Mojito. Another option is adding everything to a cocktail shaker and shaking it vigorously. This will combine all the ingredients while extracting the flavors without adding grassy, bitter, earthy flavors.

The best alternative

Making cocktails.
NA

While all the other non-muddling techniques work well if you don’t want to muddle your mint or other herbs, they don’t extract as much flavor as muddling. There is one more alternative though and it’s to add all of your cocktail ingredients to a blender and blend them for a few seconds to combine everything and then strain it.

Christopher Osburn
Christopher Osburn is a food and drinks writer located in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. He's been writing professional
Swiss Miss, Hotel Tango Distillery made a hot chocolate whiskey, your new favorite drink
Who wouldn't want a hot chocolate bourbon?
Hotel Tango

Fall is here and it’s only a matter of time before the weather turns colder. This means that hot chocolate season is right around the corner. But if you love this warming, chocolate-centric drink, but you wish it had a little boozy kick, you’re in luck. This is because the famed hot chocolate brand Swiss Miss folks are partnering with Hotel Tango Distillery to make your whiskey, marshmallow, and sweet chocolate dreams come true.
Swiss Miss 'Shmallow

It’s called Swiss Miss 'Shmallow and there just might not be a better whiskey to drink as you head into the holiday season. It starts as a flavorful, balanced bourbon which is then flavored with toasted marshmallow and cocoa. The result is complex, indulgent bourbon whiskey with notes of toffee, toasted marshmallows, and just hint of smoke. It’s the equivalent of a warming, seasonal sweater in whiskey form.

Read more
Widow Jane Black Opal is a must-have for your whiskey collection
Widow Jane is releasing its oldest whiskey to date
Widow Jane

Widow Jane is well-known for its rare bourbon blends. If you’re a fan of the Brooklyn-based brand, you’ve probably tried its 10-year-old expression and maybe even one of its Vaults releases. Now, they have something incredibly special for you. This is because Widow Jane is releasing its oldest whiskey to date.
Widow Jane Black Opal

Widow Jane Black Opal is a limited release made from the brand's oldest and rarest whiskeys. Every bourbon in this blend spent a minimum of twenty full years maturing in charred oak barrels. Head Distiller and Blender Sienna Jevremov tasted more than 100 barrels to find the perfect whiskeys to blend to create this unique offering. After blending, the bourbon was finished in Mizunara oak.

Read more
What is cork taint (and what does it do to your wine)?
How do you know if your wine is tainted?
Corks spilling out of wine glass

It's a more common occurrence than we care for, but one that we've just accepted as an unpleasant inevitability in wine drinking. If you've ever had the experience of opening a cork-tainted bottle of wine, you know its cruel power well. If you haven't, you may have heard a friend describe a wine as being "corked" and wondered to yourself what that meant. Put simply, cork taint is a wicked little problem that completely destroys wine with no care in the world as to how precious or valuable or extraordinary that wine may be.

So what is cork taint, and how can you tell if your wine has been compromised?
What causes cork taint?

Read more