Fresh Mango Mojito

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Sets the mood for a tropical escape: The mojito is a classic Cuban cocktail that’s always popular at beach bars, so the moment you serve this to your guests, everyone will forget about the real world and settle in with a relaxing drink for one fun night. And if you love this tropical cocktail, make sure you also try my coconut margarita, Painkiller and coconut-watermelon mojito.

Shows off fresh flavor and fragrance: Just like my raspberry mojito, the fresh fruit makes for the tastiest cocktail, and we use a fun garnishing technique to get the most out of our mint.  Some recipes use mango nectar, but you can't match the flavor of fresh fruit.

Perfect for serving a group: I love how you can prepare this tropical mango mojito ahead of time and serve in a pitcher for easy entertaining. Your summer hosting duties have never been more simple.

Ingredients

Another reason to love this mango mojito is for its simple ingredient list — I just have a few notes for you.

Mango: While you can certainly cut up a fresh mango, frozen mango works just as well and is even easier to use since you get to skip that step as well as the clean-up. Fruit is frozen at its peak ripeness, so you could even argue that it’s better for cocktails because you’re sure to get the mango at its most flavorful — just make sure you thaw the fruit first.

Rum: White rum rather than dark rum is standard in this classic drink. Bacardi is widely available and probably what you get from most bars, but there are also wonderful options from many Caribbean distilleries. Some other options include Cruzan Rum, Don Q, Havana Club and Foursquare Rum Distillery.

Lime wedges: Rather than using fresh lime juice, we cut the lime into wedges, which will then be muddled. I’ve tried mojitos with both fresh lime juice and muddled lime. The muddled lime had way more citrus flavor, thanks to extracting the peel oil during the muddling process.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Mojitos are traditionally made in the serving glass, so we start by grabbing a highball glass with a sturdy bottom and adding our mango chunks, lime wedges and simple syrup. We muddle the ingredients until they break down.

Now we add our fresh mint leaves to the mango mixture and muddle just a few times (photo 1). It doesn’t take a lot with mint.

Step 2: From here, we pour in our white rum (photo 2) and add a handful of ice.

Step 3: We give it a stir to chill and combine (photo 3). Cubed ice is traditional, but crushed ice also works.

Step 4 To give this mango mojito that classic bubbly kick, we top the mixture with chilled club soda (photo 4) and stir again.

Step 5: For our final step, we place a fresh mint sprig in the palm of our hand (photo 5) and quickly clap the other hand on top and garnish. This releases the mint fragrance for an even more delightful drinking experience.

And that’s it! You’re ready to sip on the most tropical mango mojito and pretend you’re on that beach vacation you deserve. Sounds great, right?

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

Use a purée or cocktail shaker if you prefer no fruit chunks: Muddling is the more traditional way to prepare mojitos, and I love those little chunks of fruit — it just makes the drink seem even fresher. But if you’re not into fruit chunks, you can either shake and strain the drink in a cocktail shaker or replace the fruit with mango purée by processing mango in a blender until smooth.

Matt and I tried this mojito by building it in a glass versus a cocktail shaker. We both agreed that building it in the glass made a fruitier-tasting mojito, but I get it if you’re not a fruit chunk-loving person. 

Be gentle to avoid a bitter mojito: It takes some arm work to break down those lime wedges, but if we overwork the mint, it can turn bitter. That’s why we muddle in two phases. Just a few light twists on the mint are all you need.

Make muddling easier and more efficient: It’s much easier to break down the limes if you place them cut-side up. I like to put the mango below the limes because it’s easier to mush, so as you work the limes, the mango will break down.

Make your own simple syrup: I highly recommend making your own simple syrup. It’s super easy and doesn’t contain any additives. Simply bring 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool, and it will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for weeks.

Spice it up: Mango goes so well with a little spice! For a spicy mango mojito, muddle some slices of fresh jalapeño or even habanero for an extra kick of heat. Or you could even use my ginger simple syrup from my ginger mojito to add some spice -- ginger is wonderful with mango.

Perfect Pairing

This tropical mojito calls for a light, beachy meal. You can’t go wrong with my lobster tacos with plenty of mango-habanero salsa. I just love a bubbly cocktail with that delicate lobster. 

And, of course, my jerk chicken or jerk pork also make for wonderful options, and my strawberry mojito sorbet is the perfect dessert. Do you feel like you’re on the beach yet?

When you need a taste of Cuba, I hope you try this fresh mango mojito recipe. You won’t find a more perfect beach cocktail – everyone loves this classic mojito with a twist.

Cheers!

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