Drinks
Virgin Cocktail Recipes: Spiced Pear Mojito
This spiced pear mojito combines a variety of herbs, fruits and spices for a delicious yet sinless cocktail. If making your own cinnamon syrup, this is a drink you can truly call homemade. Extra points if the mint has been picked from your garden. Feel free to vary the proportions to suit your taste. For more tartness, add another lime wedge. To sweeten, add extra sugar syrup, or for more spice, add more cinnamon syrup.
Ingredients
- 10 to 12 mint leaves
- 100ml pear juice
- 3 lime wedges
- 10ml sugar syrup
- 15ml cinnamon syrup *
- 25ml sparkling water
- Sprig of mint and wedges of lime, to garnish
Method
- To make cinnamon syrup – put 480ml water and four cinnamon sticks into a small pan. Bring to the boil, then simmer for ten minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks, bring the water back to the boil and add 345g sugar, stirring until it has dissolved. Cool, then pour into a sterilised bottle. Store in the fridge.
- This drink is made and served in the same glass. Place the mint
leaves in a Casablanca glass and add a drop of pear juice, just enough to wet the leaves. Muddle for a few seconds. When you muddle, you are bruising the leaves just enough to coax out the flavour. Squeeze the lime wedges into the glass and drop them in, followed by the sugar syrup. Mint, sugar and lime – the base of the mojito. Add the cinnamon syrup and stir. Fill a glass two-thirds with crushed ice. Add the rest of the pear juice and sparkling water. Stir once more. Add two straws. Garnish with lime wedges and a sprig of mint.
Add a twist: For a spicy version of the traditional Cuban cocktail, add white rum.
Recipes from The Virgin Cocktail Garden by David Hurst (£12.99, Modern Books)
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