I guess after the martini and the margarita, the mojito is probably the most frequently bastardized cocktail of all the classics. We live in a world of raz-ber-ritas and chocolate-tinis and now people like me are trying to pull shit like pineapple-spice-jitos and the entire beautiful sacred world of classic cocktail recipes is crumbling before the tear-filled eyes of some weird hypothetical cocktail purist wearing a monocle and writing an unsolicited novel-length history on the difference between a caipirinha and a ti' punch.

But honestly, screw that hypothetical monocle-wearing purist because I love breaking rules and also why the hell are you even wearing a monocle in this century.

This thing is like super refreshing, which happens to be my favorite beverage descriptor lately ("like super refreshing"), since the temperature here in New Orleans is somewhere between wet oven and Satan's armpit, and since Beau has been tricking me into going to hot yoga by calling it just "yoga" and leaving out the "hot" part, so that I'm wholly unprepared to lose five water pounds as well as any confidence I previously had in commanding my body. After sweating out all those toxins, it feels really nice having a cool beverage, relaxing, and putting those toxins right back in.

For the "spiced" aspect of this drink, I drizzled half an ounce of St. Elizabeth's Allspice Dram on top of the drink to get that cool drizzling down effect you might recognize from a dark and stormy. If you can't find St. Elizabeth's Allspice Dram, you can get that spicy flavor be adding a few cloves, cinnamon sticks, and/or allspice when making your pineapple syrup. Or, if you want a really cool homemade liqueur experience, you could use this 14-day process from Serious Eats to make your own allspice dram.

Spiced Pineapple Mojitos

Makes one drink

1.5 oz pineapple syrup (recipe below)
5-6 mint leaves
.75 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1.5 ounce light rum
.5 oz St. Elizabeth's Allspice Dram
cracked or crushed ice
mint sprig for garnish
(optional) soda water

Prepare a tall glass by filling it between three-fourths to all the way full with cracked or crushed ice.
Toss the syrup and mint leaves into your shaking tin. Gently muddle the mint in the syrup.
Add lime juice, rum, and whole ice. Shake until the tin has frosted on the outside (around 15 to 20 seconds).
Strain into glass filled with cracked ice.
(Optional) Fill almost to the top with soda water if there's extra room in your glass.
Top with St. Elizabeth's Allspice Dram
Slap that mint sprig and stick it in

Pineapple Syrup

Makes about 2 cups (enough for 10-ish cocktails)

2 cups fresh pineapple, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 cups water
2 cups sugar

Smash the pineapple chunks in a bowl with a muddler to release as much juice as possible.
Combine smashed pineapple with one cup water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Add sugar to saucepan and stir until dissolved. Continue stirring until mixture returns to a boil.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Strain out pineapple chunks and store syrup, refrigerated, up to 2 weeks.

Vase // West Elm
Bar tools // Cocktail Kingdom

Shirt // Ben Sherman