by Janiece Meek
photos by Matt Rose

If you planted a single container of mint in your garden this year, or last year, or—well, anytime—it’s likely that, by this point in the growing season, you have a bumper crop of that herbaceous creeper. Mint’s rapid-growing, spreading nature can dominate a garden and drive a gardener to drink, but luckily, we have some ideas about that: namely, mojitos, mint wine and mint juleps.

Even luckier, a couple of local restaurants were willing to share their recipes and secrets for concocting the perfect summery cocktail, made extra cool with handfuls of fresh mint. 

Hector Contreras and his wife, Bonnie, have lived in Asheville for 25 years and have become Asheville institutions—Hector as owner of Havana Cuban Restaurant and Bonnie as owner of Bonnie’s Little Corner next door at Battle Square. Motivated to serve truly distinctive mojitos at his Cuban restaurant, Hector has developed a couple of tricks for releasing the aromatic potential of the drink, much to the pleasure of mojito purists.

First, you must create the mojito in the glass you will drink from, rather than mixing it in a shaker and pouring the cocktail. By transferring the drink, you lose important oils. For a proper mashing—or muddling (bar-speak for smashing and crushing)—Hector puts a good handful of mint in a glass and tosses in a bit of sugar. The sugar acts as a grinding agent, releasing more of the oils as the mint is pounded, giving the drink a fuller flavor. After that, add your simple syrup, lime juice and rum. Fill the glass with ice and shake to release and bring all of those wonderful flavors together. Quick tip from Hector on the simple syrup: just use any container you want, fill it halfway with sugar, then fill the whole thing with hot water from the tap. Your sugar water will always have the right proportions.

Just down the street, Nancy Chambers-Park, the bar manager at Carmel’s Restaurant at Grove Arcade, puts blueberries in her mojitos, which seems appropriate since July is officially National Blueberry Month (and has been since 1999, according to the US Department of Agriculture). Still, the star of the show in the blueberry mojito is mint, and Chambers-Park’s recipe calls for about a dozen fresh leaves.

To use even more mint, the Carmel’s version of the Southern standard mint julep calls for 15 muddled mint leaves, along with simple syrup, bourbon, crushed ice and a float of rum on top. Generally associated with the Kentucky Derby, mint juleps are a summertime staple. Recipes vary wildly—from barely bruising the mint to pouring boiling water over it. Originally served in pewter cups, almost any vessel topped with a sprig of mint is appropriate, and using a straw is considered practical rather than gauche.

Now, if all of that mint in your garden still has you muddled, and you know that you can’t possibly—or don’t think it advisable to—consume it all in mojitos and juleps, pace yourself with some homemade mint wine. It calls for a lot of mint—and also takes about a year to ferment. We found a recipe in The Joy of Home Winemaking, by Minnesota science fiction and fantasy writer Terry Garey, who began her home winemaking experiments with frozen lemonade, frozen apple juice and bread yeast. Through trial and error, she began to get good results and published The Joy of Home Winemaking in 1995, the next year releasing a paperback version. Garey’s basic recipe calls for a quart of mint leaves, sugar, some type of citrus and champagne yeast. This will work with any mint of your choosing—although we’ve read that chocolate or horse mint may not result in the flavors you’re going for. 

Alex Zdanovich at Brewer’s Supply in Asheville offers a couple of improvements to Garey’s recipe. Zdanovich, who reports that many of the store’s female customers seem to be making honey wine, says that mint wine is basically like mead, substituting sugar for honey. You can find champagne yeast at Brewer’s Supply, and the Brewer’s Supply guys are generally eager to share recipes and tips for mint wine or, really, any other home brew.   

TRY THIS AT HOME: Some drinks with some zing

Havana Cuban’s Mojito
1 handful of mint, mashed
1 shot simple syrup
1 shot lime juice
1 shot rum

Prepare the glass by mashing the mint, add shots of syrup, juice, and rum. Add crushed ice, shake, and enjoy.

Carmel’s Blueberry Mojito
1 oz rum
1 oz blueberry vodka
about a dozen fresh blueberries (pressed)
about a dozen muddled mint leaves

To that, simply add simple syrup, soda water, and a splash of lime to taste.

Carmel’s Mint Julep
10-20 mint leaves
1.5 oz bourbon (preferably Maker’s Mark)
splash of simple syrup
float of Bacardi rum on top

Mix all ingredients in a glass with crushed ice, making sure to muddle the mint with the ice.

Terry Garey’s Mint Wine
with modifications by Alex Zdanovich
4 cups fresh mint
6 cups to 2 pounds of either fine white or turbinado sugar (according to your preference for sweetness)
pectic enzyme
zest and juice of 2 lemons
champagne yeast

Start by steeping the mint in 3 quarts of boiled water. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves, then add the pectic enzyme and lemons. The mixture should sit overnight, covered tightly. Next day, strain it into a gallon jug. Add the yeast (this is called “pitching the yeast,”) and add an airlock—a simple, but critical, device that protects the fermenting wine from infection and simultaneously allows carbon dioxide gas to escape the fermentation vessel. Rack the wine after two weeks, and then rack every three months until the wine is clear, and bottle it. (For you non-brewers out there, racking is siphoning the liquid into another container, leaving the sediment behind.) Try to wait at least one year before opening and enjoying your mint wine.

MIXOLOGISTS OF MINT

Havana Restaurant
and Bonnie’s Little Corner
1 Battle Square, Asheville, across from Grove Arcade
828-252-1611

Carmel's Restaurant & Bar
1 Page Ave, Asheville
828-252-8730

Asheville Brewers Supply
712-B Merrimon Avenue, Asheville
828-285-0515