[1][2] Its combination of sweetness, citrus, and herbaceous mint flavors is intended to complement the rum, and has made the mojito a popular summer drink.

[3][4] When preparing a mojito, fresh lime juice is added to sugar (or to simple syrup) and mint leaves.

[5] Then rum is added and the mixture is briefly stirred to dissolve the sugar and to lift the mint leaves up from the bottom for better presentation.

It was known that the native people had remedies for various tropical illnesses, so a small boarding party went ashore on Cuba and came back with ingredients for an effective medicine.

[12] Lime juice on its own would have significantly prevented scurvy and dysentery,[13][14][11] and tafia/rum was soon added as it became widely available to the British (ca.

This epigraph, handwritten and signed in his name,[18] persists despite doubts expressed by Hemingway biographers about such patronage and the author's taste for mojitos.

[20][21] A survey by an international market research company found that in 2016 the mojito was the most popular cocktail in Britain and France.

[31] Many restaurants serve them,[32][33][better source needed] and these added ingredients enhance the cocktail and its original flavor.