Refreshing and Summery Blackberry Mojito

Summertime is great time to kick back and enjoy a cool and refreshing blackberry mojito! Blackberry juice, lime juice, rum, and just enough mint make for a simple and satisfying cocktail which can beat back the summer’s heat.

Or at least it can try!

I live in New England because I am not a fan of super hot weather. Which means that the last week of 90+ degree days has been puddle inducing. Ugh. Too hot and too humid to do much of anything.

Happily, I have a pile of great frosty cocktails I’ve developed over the years to get me through, including this latest cocktail.

It certainly got us through the heat when we went up to visit my cousin and her family recently. 🙂 I did up a big batch of mojitos, along with a little extra blackberry and lime base for the kids, and they were a big hit all around.

More Frosty Summer Cocktails for Hot Days

• My Perfect Pina Colada Recipe
• Coconut, Orange, and Pineapple Rum Punch
• Layered Frozen Strawberry and Lime Daiquiri
• Strawberry Ginger Caipirinha Cocktail
• Fresh Blueberry Mojito

How to Make a Blackberry Mojito

Start by pulling out your blackberries, limes, and few sprigs of mint. Once you have all that assembled, you’re just a few minutes away from enjoying a cold cocktail.

Mash up the blackberries. For one or two cocktails, I like to just mash them right in the strainer over a bowl. If you are making more, it does make sense to pull out the blender.

Once you have the strained blackberry juice, pour it into the shaker. Then squeeze enough limes to get about 2 oz of juice. (This takes me 2 1/2 – 3 limes, depending on their juiciness.)

Add the mint and gently muddle the mint into the fruit juices by twisting your muddler a few times. Next, pour in the rum, squeeze in some agave, and shake a few drops of bitters. Fill the shaker with ice and shake well.

Divide the drinks between two glasses, add ice to the glasses, and then fill with some soda water (a couple of ounces in each glass). If you wish, garnish the drinks with a blackberry or two and a wedge of lime. And maybe a paper straw too.

How to Muddle Mint for a Mojito

One important part of making my blackberry mojito is to properly bruise the mint to release its flavor into the drink.

There are two schools of thought on how to do that.

• Use the shaker, no muddler required.
• Gently muddle with a simple twist.

For the first, the argument is that shaking the mint will bruise it sufficiently, so don’t bother muddling.

Simply give the drink a good, hard shake. Be vigorous and your mint will take care of itself. The beauty of this method is that it’s really hard to screw up. Since you aren’t pressing the mint, you aren’t tempted to overdo it and introduce grassy/muddy flavors into your drink.

The second requires a little more technique, but so long as you do it properly, you will have perfectly bruised mint in your drink.

The steps are:

1. Add your mint to the bottom of your shaker or other sturdy glass.
2. Add any sugar, fruit juice, or pieces of fruit which also need to be muddled.
3. Gently press down and give the muddler a couple of twists. Your mint should look lightly bruised, but not mashed up or torn.
4. Add the rest of your ingredients and make your mojito.

One more note – a muddler with teeth on the bottom is great for muddling lime wedges or herbs like rosemary but is too harsh for mint or other tender herbs. Instead use a smooth bottomed plastic or wooden muddler. Or the handle of your rolling pin. Or anything else unvarnished and food safe which is long and has a smooth end.

Cocktails Accessories to Buy:

I love paper straws since they are biodegradable and come in lots of cool designs. (I picked a couple to link – look around the site for other colors and types.)

• Chevron Multi-Pack
• Striped Multi-Pack

As for a shaker, I prefer a glass-bottomed cocktail shaker. You do need to hold it closed, but you don’t need to pry it open like many of the metal shakers out there.

• Glass-Bottomed Shaker (from Sur la Table)

Since we know now (from my discussion up above), that we need a flat bottomed muddler for mint, I have a plastic one and a wooden one. To keep the wooden muddler nice, don’t put it through the dishwasher and give a oiling with food grade mineral oil from time to time.

• Plastic Muddler
• Wooden Muddler

If you try my recipe for Blackberry Mojito, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! You can connect with me by subscribing to my emails (see the form in the sidebar or below the recipe card), liking my FACEBOOK page, or by following me on PINTEREST.

– Happy Drinking, Annemarie