Mojitos al Cactusbar - quite good even if they use Negrita...

Passeig del Born, 30 - Barcelona

www.cactusbar.cat

8€

Following the recommendation of the Timeout magazine, we went to the passeig del Born to taste the mojitos of the Cactusbar.

The Cactusbar is on a corner, has a minuscule terrace and - attention, because this isn't too obvious if you don't know it - quite some space on the upper floor (that was almost empty the day we went there - and the rest of the bar was totally full). There's no bar-service on the upper floor, so you have to ask for your drink at the counter and take it upstairs with you - which allowed us to check out shamelessly the mojito preparation.

As their advertise the mojito (and the "Sex on the beach") as their speciality, they have a row of big glasses (they're boston-cocktail glasses) already prepared with the mix of mint (not too fresh...), lime and brown sugar. They add lemon juice (looked natural), Negrita-rum (bleujjjj) some siphon and crushed ice.

And they shake it (hence the boston-cocktail glass) - mojitos aren't supposed to be shaken, the sugar should be mixed with a spoon until totally solved.

The result isnt' bad, also not the best we ever had - if they improved their ingredients we might get a very good mojito even. The fact that it was BIG helped in the very

warm summer evening....

Its mojitop.com mark is 7.02, evaluated by 3 mojixp's and 1 mojiteur .

If you're around "El Born" it's not a bad option, although we prefer the mojito they serve at "Borneo" even when they can be a bit too small for thisty mojito-lovers.

Mojito al Vinil - un ambient diferent, un mojito pse-pse

c/Matilde 2 (el que arriba des de Travessera a la plaça de la Vila de Gràcia pel costat Besòs)

Preu 7€

Ingredients

- Rom Pujol

- Sucre moreno

- 4 quarts de llima

- canyeta fosforita gran

- menta de "tupper"

El resultat és un mojito bastant fort, servit en un copa rodona, en taules amb discs de vinil pintats com a decoració.

Nota mitjana 6.42, avaluat per 4mojixp's i 2 mojibaby's

Resumint, el local està curios, la decoració i ambientació són agradables, però el mojito no mata. Potser millor anar a gaudir de l'ambient i tot plegat prenent una birra, que sempre és una aposta segura...

Seguim buscant bons mojitos a Gràcia!!

Mojitos with Mexican touch at Rosa Negra

Address: Via Laietana 46 (La Ribera)

• Grade: 7,08 (evaluated by 3 mojiexperts and 1 baby)
• Price: €7 (happy hour on mojitos on Mondays €3,50 Monday to Friday 18.00-20.00)
  

We went for dinner at the Rosa Negra, a crowded Mexican restaurant with great atmosphere. We couldn't resist their mojito offering: classic, strawberry and virgin. All three went down very well while waiting for our meal, so we had another round of our instant favourite, the strawberry mojito.

Being at a restaurant with very busy staff, we couldn't get hold of the recipe. We should try harder next time. In all we enjoyed the drink, and the place has good vibes, but we might not go there just for the mojito. If thirsting for a mojito in La Ribera, we choose another Mexican place just around the corner: Chico Chango.

MOJITOP accelerates again towards full activity after winter-letargy

We know we've been performing lower during the winter season - it's not as pleasing to have a mojito in winter inside as now that he temperature is nice and you can enjoy them in a terrace and really appreciate their intense refreshing qualities!

And we're back to organising expeditions and ranking mojitos - so please leave us here your suggestions!!

More to come soon from us!

Dry Martiny - Mojitos in a classy sofa - part 2

Adress: Aribau 162 (Còrsega) Eixample Esquerre Barcelona





We had already visited this bar, but we revisited it this week since we were in the neighbourhood. And the result was even better!






We tried four different kinds of mojito:

Kumquat - it's a citric fruit - the mojito was excellent

Passion Fruit - for those who love sweet mojitos. Passion fruit adds a sweet twist to the mojito mix

Shiso - the asiatic mint and a very special taste left in your mouth makes this a very interesting (and good!) mojito

Red Fruits - Red Fruit lovers, this is your mojito! It is drier than the others

• All of them were good - and that's also what gets reflected on the marks - Dry Martini goes up 3 positions in the mojitop ranking! Its average score is 8, and right now it stands as number 6 in our ranking!

This time we managed to get a seating place in the sofas - so we could enjoy our mojitos comfortably.
There's though a big BUT in this bar - it is allowed to smoke in it, and the smokey athmosphere makes the mojito experience a lot less enjoyable. We're looking forward to the anti-smoking law to become something more effective and that smoke gets definitively banned from all bars!

Mojquito

(@Noe: Merci!)

Mojitos in Seoul - The Bungalow

The newest chapter of the "mojitoworld" section: Some of us travelled to South Korea and could not miss the chance to taste their mojitos.

The bar we visited in Seoul is called Bungalow, in the Itaewon quarter of the city. This area is really international and it's very easy to find cocktails, belgian beers, etc. ....written in English words.


They had 3 types of mojitos in this bar: Bungalow mojito (the normal one), apple mojito and Diablo mojito. To change a bit, we tasted the 2 untraditional ones.The Diablo mojito contained the following ingredients: sauza, cassi, mint leaf, lime and sugar. It's a really exotic, isnt' it? But we saw this mojito in other bars in Seoul too....Maybe it's a common mojito there? Anyway...it looked red and tasted like cough mixture or syrup!

About the price, they both costed W10.000 (more or less 6 EUR),

Conclusions:

• There are mojitos in Seoul too.
  
• They have a version we had not seen before: the Diablo mojito
• The 2 mojitos we tasted were not extraordinary, just OK mojitos with very little alcohol content.

Christmas Mojitos

As we enter into December, it's time for some Christmas atmosphere. The lights mounted across Barcelona are ready to be lit, and the countdown towards the holidays has begun. Perhaps an ice-cold refreshing mojito is not what creates the most Xmas spirit. A few people on the web, however, present their solutions for a more holiday- centered mojito.

Armand Famiglietti presents The Classic Christmas Mojito that adds rum-soaked cranberries, together with orange and cranberry juice to the standard mojito mix. Sounds delicious!

Jenn at Cafe Gonelly adds the Christmas touch with pomegranate. However, it might be hard to find pomegranate 7UP here in Barcelona. Has anyone tasted it?

Let's see if our favourite bars in Barcelona add Christmas Mojito to their drink list this December. If you know where to get one, please let us know.

Lletraferit revisited - good mojito, bad service...

By chance ,with a group of friends we were close to "El Raval" having dinner - so when we decided to go for a mojito, the choice was clear - let's go to "Lletraferit".

So we did...

We even found place to sit, even if we were with a big group. And the mojito was good in the end. But there is a big big but.

The service there was REALLY bad. First of all, they didn't take our order - they gave us a piece of paper and a pen and we had to take it ourselves. That wouln't be that bad if then they hadn't taken almost half an hour to serve the cocktails.

And it got to even worse, when some people in the group decided to leave - they just joined for a quick drink and that wasn't going to happen - and they told the waiter to kill the order. Then he got extremely angry and said that precisely that cocktail was already ready and that if the rest of us wanted to get our drinks, we'd have to pay it anyway.

It was very surrealistic, and we only stayed because----i don't know, i guess we were a bit shocked and didn't react on time, but next time something like that happens to us we will all leave and then he'll have to start thinking of treating clients a bit better instead of threatening them with not serving their drinks when it's only their fault that they're super-slow.

Also we commented about the athmosphere of the place. This time we were sitting close to the door. And it was really bad. Smoke keeps building up in the place, and instead of having a good air extractor and ventilation as it is compulsory - they just opened the door. And i assure you it was really cold at night last saturday. So the effect was good because the air got fresher (it was extremely stinky before) and bad because we got really cold

All in all, a bad experience with a good mojito. Thank god we were there with a nice group of friends and we that we had fun even with this adverse environment.

Personally, i'm not going to repeat the trial @ Lletraferit, even if the mojito was good as ever. The mojito-quality is important - but it isn't everything you look for when you go out for a drink.

Sparkling up recipes: the mojito of the future

Once and again we have witnessed how the mojito trend is taking Barcelona bars by storm. If first came the pride of making the so-called "authentic mojitos" (which has several times proved to be difficult to find in this city), lately we have noticed how bars are sparkling up mojitos to offer new flavours to clients.

This can of course result in awful mixtures, but so far we have mostly encountered great surprises. Some of our favourite bars in Barcelona not only make superb classic recipes, but also master fruity ones. Great are the tasty-apple mojitos of Café Milans, the maracuya of the So-lo Bar or the incredible kiwi-flavoured (!) of our always favourite Polaroid .

Still there is much room left for playing around with the minty and lemonish recipe and we are very much looking forward to being surprised by creative bartenders in town. Need inspiration? the New Yorker Eben Freeman recently created, for the Bacardi Superior's rum launch, the "Mojito of the future"mdescribed as a thickened and sweeted rum with suspended pearls of mint and lime. Difficult to imagine? Check the video:

Mojitop is now on Twitter!

We're exploring new ways of communication!
If you're a Twitter user, follow us at http://www.twitter.com/mojitop

Mojitos at Caribbean Club - Mojito in a ship?

c/ Sitges 5, Barcelona

Price - 8€

Average mark - 6,5 (evaluated by 3 mojixp's)

Next to THE bar every tourist visits (la ovella negra), there's a little wooden door. And behind that wooden door hides the "Caribbean Club". It is a weird bar, starting from its entrance - a wooden door that doesn't allow you to see anything of its interior (not how bars usually try to attract customers) - continuing to its interior, decorated in the fashion of a ship.

The bartender is dressed as you'd expect one from the 20's (1920's that is) there are rudders hanging from the wall, portholes....and everything is covered in wood.

The average age of the people visiting the bar is - definitely high .We think some people might let their children at "la ovella" and go for their cocktails here. mojitop members are mostly under-30 and we were lowering the average by 10 years or more (and there was just 3 of us :P).

Nonetheless, we don't really judge the bar itself (and this one was anyway pintoresque by itself) but the mojito. So here comes its description:

- Sugar

- Angostura bitters

- Mint (taken from a plastic bag)

- White Rum "Varadero"

These ingredients first get mixed together

- 2 big ice-cubes (mojito cuban style!)

- Lemon juice (they kept it in a jar)

Everything stirred with a long spoon - and there you go. All served in a tube-glass (small-ish)

- Long "orxateria" straws

The result was very alcoholic! Not enough mint or citric taste in our opinion. Lime is always better we think, it has more personality - and having some mint-slices is always good because then you can still squeeze it a bit.

And as a final note - the waiter was wearing a lace, and it was quite a show to see him prepare cocktails - when he had to shake something he always went to a precise spot and shaked them there - it was quiter weird to watch.

The Caribbean Club makes it to nr. 35 in our ranking

Mojitos in Beijing - Aroma: Another mojito @ Houhai - The more, the better!

Price : 20yuan (during happy hour: 16-20h)

Location: Another terrace along HouHai :)

The mojitop expedition in Beijing, chose the bar "Aroma" to take its third and last Chinese Mojito. The result was excellent, the best mojito we had in china. We had it quite early in the afternoon (around 18h) but hey - we just had to ride a bike along the small hutongs and an authentic and very crowded marketplace afterwards ;)).

The mojito had mint, lemon instead of lime as usual, sugar, rum...and it was quite well balanced. A happy mojito :)

And about the setting - very nice terrace facing the lake, comfortable chairs, good temperature. The only but were the many chinese with huge reflex cameras who spotted us and probably recognised us as mojitop members and started taking pictures of us. We knew this would happen someday with our fan-base growing steadily, but it was really a bit too much. And they dindn't even invite us to the mojitos (hint for the rest of fans who want to take pictures of us: PAY FOR OUR DRINKS!).

Anyway...from our spot we also got to see around 70 chinese women all dressed up with dresses that had an extremely long cut on the side - we didn't find out what the occasion was. But it was worth seeing - all the carriages and all the women.

So this wraps our Chinese-Mojito expedition. We hope to be able to report soon from somewhere else in the world :)

Mojitos in Beijing - HouHaiHong

Price - 20 yuan (roughly 2€)

Location - HouHaiHong - a bar with a terrace by the Houhai lake

As our followers know because of our previous post - mojitop.com travelled to Beijing, China to find their best mojitos.

The first experience wasn't very encouraging, but since we're dedicated people we continued pursuing our goal - finding a great mojito. Our second try was at HouHaiHong, which could be translated as "The popular in HouHai" (and HouHai might be the Queen's lake or the "Lake after" - we don't really know (if any of our readers can help us at this, we'll be happy to learn some chinese!)).

Anyway, the second mojito was quite good. Good balance of sugar and mint and some lemon that gave it a citric touch (even when it's not the same a lime...). A good mojito according to the two mojiexperts at the venue.

The size was reasonably big and the terrace had nice views over the lake. And the price was also good (according to our standards).

It was amenised by a chinese guy with a guitar singing - a very extended tradition in the area, where most bars offer live-music. Unfortunately the weather wasn't too kind with us and we had to finish our mojitos inside!

Special thanks to Wim for taking us to the area and translating the name of the bar :)

Mojitos in Beijing - HouHai lake mojitos 1 of 3 - No name!

Mojito world doesn't stop in Europe, and travelled this time to Asia to discover its mojitos. Yes, we know mojitos are originary from the Caribbean, but chinese are famous for copying EVERYTHING!! Everything?? We don't know, but they did copy the Recipe of the mojitos!!

We tried different mojitos in Beijing (the capital of China), here comes the report about the first of them. As usual, we try to write our mojito world reports in english so everyone can understand them, especially the owners of the bars - but in this case it doesn't make such a difference because mojitop.com is not accessible from China!!

Anyway here comes the report:

Price - 30 yuan

Bar - No name (that's the name)- one of the many around HouHai lake :)

Evaluation - a very mild mojito, the rum was nowhere to be found!

Our first mojito experience in Beijing was a bit deceiving. Even if the waiter ran out of the bar very fast to his car to get a plant of mint with which he prepared the mojito, the result was rather bad. The rum couln't be tasted, so it was a sweet sort of refreshing drink with mint.

The size wasn't also too impressing.

For the rest the bar was ok, they made a very nice Beijing style duck, which we found delicious!

But if you go to Beijing, we recommend you to chose some other place where to order your mojito! More recommendations soon at mojitop.com! :)

Mojitos in the Bairro Alto (Lisbon)- great atmosphere, in spite of the baaaad mojitos

Olá everyone!

Another chapter for our "mojitoworld" adventures: Here's our little mojito-tasting story about Lisbon:

The Bairro Alto, in Lisbon, is very well-known for its night bars. The atmosphere is great (for everyone except the neighbours, I guess), and there are tons of tiny bars announcing caipirinhas for 3 or 4 €... and if you read the long list of 100 other cocktails, there are mojitos too!

Chosing one of many, we went to a bar called "Cyber Café Bar" in the Rua da Atalaia. A very small place, but tastefully decorated with maps of Lisbon painted in the wall and in the ceiling. A huge electric fan kept us cool in the 33ºC of the Lisbon night, until a group of French people came in the bar loudly screaming "Mojitóoo, mojitóoo". Then when we left.

About the quality of the mojito, there is not much to say: It was really BAD. Lots of mint but very few lime, and too much of a rum called "Rebellion -one of those that would fall in the category of strong-taste&even-stronger-hangover kind of liquor.

Afterwards we drank mojitos in another bar down the street, whose quality was the same (also bad...).

Like the first one, they were served in plastic glasses of a local beer brand, ready to drink it outside of the bar. And there is where we sat down, in the free spots we could find on the pavement, seeing waves of people coming up and down the street.

Mojitos at Polaroid - could it be the best mojito in Barcelona?

Pot ser el millor mojito en Barcelona?
¿Puede ser el mejor mojito en Barcelona?

Dirección: Còdols, 29 - Metro Drassanes

Average: 8,57 (evaluated by 4 mojiexperts + a babymoji)
Price: 6 €

• Rum: Negrita blanco
• Fresh mint from a glass jar
  
• Schweppes Limón
  
• Crushed ice
• Lime
• Angostura
• 2 spoons of brown sugar
• For the fruity mojitos: pieces of kiwi and orange, respectively
  

In the gothic quarters of Barcelona, most bars serve mojitos but of highly distinct qualities. Looking at our map, this part of the city is full of green tags. However, now we have found one bar that outclasses them all, a bar whose mojitos gave us palatial bliss: Polaroid.

In this spacious bar, tastefully (yes it is possible) decorated with 80's memorabilia, 4 mojitos were on the menu: classic, kiwi, orange and mango. We went for the classic along with a kiwi and an orange. Then we snuck up to the cocktail corner to observe the bartenders work in action. Just watching turned out to be a pleasure, as she prepared the mojitos with confidence and care, finally shaking the mojito in a cocktail shaker to distribute the cold and the flavours. The ice was well crushed, and the mint leaves fresh and green. The visual result bode for a good experience.

And yes! At the first sip, we all looked at each other: wow, this one is great. We recommend all the 3 flavours. The classic was just that perfect combination of mint, lime, rum and sugar that we long for. The orange mojito was a savoury, fruity treat. The kiwi mojito carried a tang to cherish. A great thanks to Eduard for recommending Polaroid - we will for sure be back!

mojito pictures from the mojitop.com crew

As you know, in our posts we try to include pictures of the mojitos we drink, and sometimes of the places we drink them in.

Mostly we just show a small picture so you get an idea of how it looks like - and also mostly we just put 1-2 pictures per post, not to overcrowd it.

However, we generally take several shots of the mojito, of the place, the coasters....if you want to see them, visit our webalbum!

You can find the bigger versions of the captions on the posts on our online album!! We usually publish a folder per bar or "experiment" - so if you're curious, just check them!!

Need a translation? Necessites una traducció? Necesitas una traducción?

As you see, we use three languages on our blog: English, Catalan and Spanish

We don't really follow any guideline to decide in which language we write - just how it feels better at the moment we start writing.

Anyway, in case you see an article about that bar you'd like to visit, but don't understand the post, ask for a translation on our comments box, and we'll try to offer that particular article also in your preferred language, so mojito knowledge spreads to as many people as possible :)

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Com veieu, escrivim en tres llengües diferents en el nostre blog: anglès, català i castellà

No seguim cap norma per decidir en quin llenguatge escrivim cada article - ho fem tal com raja segons com ens vingui de gust en el moment en què ens posem a escriure.

De totes maneres, en el cas de que veieu un article d'un bar que us agradaria visitar però no enteneu ben bé l'article, demaneu-nos a la caixa de comentaris la traducció i intentarem publicar-lo en la vostra llengua preferida, per tal que el coneixement sobre els mojitos s'estengui a tanta gent com sigui possible :)

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Como veis, escribimos en tres lenguas distintas en nuestro blog: inglés, catalán y castellano

No seguimos ninguna norma para decidir en que lengua escribimos un artículo - lo hacemos sobre la marcha, según nos apetezca en el momento en el que nos ponemos a escribir.

De todas formas, en el caso de que veais un artículo de un bar que us gustaria visitar escrito en un idioma que no sea el vuestro y no lo entendaís bien, pedidnos en la caja de comentarios su traducción, y intentaremos publicarlo también en vuestra lengua preferida, para que el conocimiento sobre los mojitos se extienda a tanta gente como sea posible :)

Mojitos @ Negroni - tasted like rum-tonic

Dirección: Joaquín Costa, 46 (Raval) 08001 Barcelona

Precio: 7€
Nota media: 5.3 (evaluated by 5 mojiexperts)

Recently named the best cocktailbar in Barcelona by Time Out magazine, Negroni raises expectations. It's cool, black interior and classy bartenders, makes this an exquisite bar without being posh. The crowd was sipping on a variety of exciting, elegant cocktails, but we were there for our mission: mojitos.

Upon our first sip, we reacted with utter disappointment. This was a rum-tonic with lemon juice - far from the refreshing mint pleasure of the mojito. The acidity cut through the throat, killing any hint of mint. So although a great bar, it is not the place for mojitos. We will probably return to Negroni, but then to enjoy a Whisky Collins or Moscow Mule or another classy cocktail.

The ingredients:

- Fresh mint (stored in plastic box)
- 2 spoons of white sugar
- fresh lemon juice (a lot)
- Habana 3, white
- Schweppes Tonic
- Angostura
- Crushed ice, although with some "icebergs"
- Black straw