The mystery of Pirates of the Caribbean, the hardiness of Hemingway, the romance of Che Guevara, and, of course, the sentimentality of Jay. There are a lot of labels that belong to mojitos, but what does this stuff really taste like?
No:1 One
Cubans believe the origin of mojito can be traced back to a traditional Caribbean seasoning called mojo. By Chinese standards, mojo is actually a marinade that gives meats their unmistakable smoky flavor and refreshing acidity when grilled steaks, chicken and fish are prepared. There are many ingredients in "mojo," including oil, garlic, parsley, pepper, salt, etc., but the most essential is fresh lime, a citrus fruit native to East Asia that is not meant to be eaten on its own, and which has a sharper, more astringent flavor than lemon. But paired with meats, it's a fishy and unctuous combination. And yes, as a cocktail, the mojito's base, too, is sharply acidic: the tartness comes from Cuban limes, which are readily available, and the sharpness is compounded by fresh mint leaves and cheap distilled soju.
In the mid-19th century, Spanish colonizers created this characterful little dessert water to mimic the flavor of Cuba's native "mojo," and named it after the intriguing Spanish word "mojadito. "mojadito" translates to "moist" in Chinese. Apparently, mojito started out as an ambiguous name, similar to the Cantonese word for "salty and wet". The sweet and sour refreshing drink is sure to be a hit with the girls, but it's spiked with spirits and is quite alcoholic. The drinks are naturally indescribable as they are consumed over and over again. Associated with the romantic nature of the Hispanic character and the sexual openness of Latinos in particular, it's not hard to imagine the popularity that the mojito would have generated when it was first invented.
Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Cuba for 20 years, was a big fan of the mojito, and "My mojito is in the Bodeguita (a famous restaurant in Havana)," was almost his mantra. What is not known to most is that Hemingway, who had four wives and countless lovers in his life, once wrote a colorful poem, "To Martha Gellhorn's Vagina," for his third wife and recited it to each other when he slept with all the women who followed. One can only imagine what Mojito meant to Hemingway.
No:2 II
The translation of "Mojito" is also problematic, and is actually sung in Jay's new song, which is supposed to be "Moheto." Because the Spanish "J" is the equivalent of the English "H", the British spelling of Mojito is Mohito, which is why when Mojito first came to Chinese bars, it was translated as "Mo Drink More". "Mo Drink More". It hides the meaning of letting girls drink less and not fall for the scum, and also expresses the obscure and conservative attitude of Chinese people towards sexual matters in those days, which really does both the letter and the word. But strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with calling it "mojito", because the earliest mistranslation actually came from the British - in the process of the birth of mojito, the British played no less a role than the Spaniards. 1493, Columbus discovered Cuba, not only brought the Spanish colonizers, but also the Spanish colonists. brought not only Spanish colonists, but also the rhizomes of sugar cane. Compared to the high latitude and dry environment of Europe, where sugarcane is almost impossible to grow, the hot and humid climate of Cuba is simply a paradise for sugarcane. In the centuries that followed, large sugar cane estates opened up in Cuba. Mature sugarcane was harvested for juice, sugar refining and sent back to Europe, enlightening the European culture of pastry, coffee and tea drinking. To this day, Cuban sugar is the region's largest export, alongside cigars.
But there's one big difference between the European sugar process and the Chinese: the quest for purity. So the Chinese will repeatedly boil the cane pulp, and finally dry out the water to become a solid block, which is what we call handmade ancient brown sugar; while the white man will be after the concentration of the cane pulp, the physical means to make sucrose crystals precipitation, to obtain the "pure" sugar. Granulated sugar has the advantage of being sweeter, but it wastes the remaining sugar and amino acids in the cane juice. The Spaniards called this bitter-tasting pulp "molasses" and it was often used as fodder and as food for the black slaves in the sugar cane plantations, in an effort to "waste" the sugar. However, this slurry, which is rich in amino acids, was difficult to preserve for long periods of time in the hot Caribbean region. Before the black slaves could finish eating it, they realized that the molasses had already fermented and turned sour. But when they drank it, they gained a euphoric pleasure similar to drinking alcohol.
That's right, molasses fermentation, also similar to fruits and grains, can produce alcohol. Although the taste could not be compared to wine or rice wine, the fact that there was still alcohol to drink in the harsh environment was a great pleasure for the black slaves. For a long time, molasses wine was the enjoyment of the black slaves to spice up their lives. In the sixteenth century, England defeated the invincible Spanish Armada and acquired the colony of Cuba. Unlike the nervous Spaniards, the austere English soon discovered the Negroes' private enjoyment. They took to molasses, similar to distilling wine into whiskey, and distilled a new spirit - which came to be known as rum.
The newly distilled rum had a sharp, monotonous flavor and was not pleasant to drink, so the master distillers came up with two ways to deal with it: one was to put it into oak barrels and age it like whiskey, to get the aroma of the acorns, and because of the color change from clear to dark when it came of age, it was called "Golden Rum"; and the other was to mimic the taste of molasses that had been distilled before, and add fresh rum to the rum to make it taste better. taste, add fresh sugar cane juice in rum, with lime, mint flavored with color, bright green look, and the black slaves drink the black bad drink to distinguish, have "civilized people drink" look, this is the mojito.
No:333
With its novel taste and beautiful appearance, the mojito soon "counterattacked" Europe from the New World, and under the baptism of Europe's pluralistic civilization, many different versions appeared. People put these "not authentic" mojito, called "Mojito pestato", that is, "European version" or "wrong version "
The French, who know how to eat, replaced the fierce rum with sweet liqueur, reducing the amount of sugar and alcohol; because Europe lacks limes, they replaced them with orange pomelo, a cross between an orange and a grapefruit, to reduce the acidity. This French mojito has an approachable, gentle character and is a particularly popular after-dinner dessert wine. The Italians, on the other hand, replace the lime with basil leaves from the Ligurian coast, add plenty of ice, and serve it in a tureen, typical of the rough-and-tumble approach to Italian cuisine.
As times have changed, there have been more and more variations of this type of mojito, with bases such as tequila, champagne, and Campari, and fruits such as pomegranate, raspberry, passion fruit, and even coconut. Some good people have counted more than 300 variations. After the invention of carbonated beverages, it became standard to add soda to mojitos, and the unique thrill of the bubbly complemented the sharpness of the mint and lime, while some people even ditched the alcoholic beverages to make so-called "non-alcoholic mojitos" with soda, Sprite or ginger ale to satisfy a wider range of tastes.
The most interesting thing is that North African countries are not allowed to drink alcohol because of their religious beliefs. In order to drink mojitos, local people use a lot of tea leaves and water, boiled high concentration of caffeine tea, imitating the alcohol surging "head" feeling, plus sugar, mint leaves, become a unique national drink. In order to better imitate the real mojito from the color, highlighting the bright green of mint, North African countries abandoned the widely popular in the West's black tea, instead of green tea - Morocco, Tunisia and other countries, and therefore became the highest demand for green tea in China, the largest export trade countries, and this green tea mojito, was known as the locals "national drink". -END-500 years ago, the black slaves who drank fermented molasses water with fear and trembling in the Cuban sugarcane estates did not expect that the act of planting flowers inadvertently had been fermented through history and turned into a beverage that has become popular all over the world; and even Chinese green tea, which originated on the other side of the globe, has thus gained an additional and interesting form of expression. No food is an island on this ever-closer planet, and no one can do it alone. The mojito is Cuban and, of course, universal.