Mojito Mint (Mentha villosa)

Cuba’s famed mojito cocktail, once a daily favourite of Ernest Hemingway, has enjoyed a meteoric resurgence in popularity ever since James Bond drank one in the movie Die Another Day. The mojito, made with rum, sugar, lime juice and Cuba’s unique mojito mint, is now an essential staple of cocktail lounges everywhere. While recipes call for any available variety of spearmint, the real mojito can only be made with the true mojito mint. This mint was impossible to get in North America but thanks to Toronto mojito enthusiast Catherine Nasmith who visited Cuba in 2006 we now have the authentic plant from Cuba. It is clearly different from most other mints -- its scent and flavour are agreeably mild and warm, not pungent nor overly sweet like other mints. In a perhaps typically Cuban understated way, its warm embrace lingers until you realize you want more. Like all mints it is easy to grow and will happily provide more than enough fresh sprigs for your mojitos. Salud!