Celebrate the Holiday Season with a crisp and refreshing Cranberry Mojito. This take on a classic mojito uses cranberry simple syrup to add a tart/sweet cranberry flavor to the cocktail. It’s perfect for your next holiday party.
Our holiday party this year will include a Cranberry Pecan Cheeseball, a Fig And Goat Cheese Tart, Spicy Seafood Dip, Shrimp Cocktail, Honey Bourbon Glazed Scallops, and Fried Deviled Eggs. Hopefully, everyone has the same two favorite food groups as I do – seafood and cheese.
What Is A Mojito?
A mojito is a traditional Cuban punch made of white rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water, and fresh mint. It’s a cocktail that is perfectly balanced between sweet and tart.
A classic Cuban Mojito uses turbinado sugar instead of simple syrup and muddles the mint with the sugar. Doing this releases the essential oils in the mint. Adding lime juice softens any bitterness in the mint and balances out the sweet sugar.
The Perfect Drink for Christmas or Thanksgiving
Rather than muddling the mint into granulated sugar, this cranberry mojito uses a simple syrup to get the tart flavor of the cranberries into the cocktail. The mint is then muddled with lime juice. The result is a refreshing, minty mojito with the tart, sweet flavor of cranberries.
Making the cranberry simple syrup rather than muddling fresh or frozen cranberries allows us to get maximum cranberry flavor into the cocktail, yet maintain the pretty pink, clear color. This is important if you want to impress you guests, and if you do it the other way you may notice it tastes a bit different!
Ingredients Needed
- Fresh cranberries – I’ve tried making this with frozen cranberries, but didn’t have great luck. The flavor was watery.
- Granulated sugar
- Fresh mint
- Limes – fresh lime juice is essential for this cocktail
- White rum
- Sparkling water, club soda, or seltzer – I used club soda.
Steps To Make This Recipe
- Make the cranberry simple syrup by combining cranberries, water, and sugar in a saucepan.
- Cook until the sugar dissolves and the cranberries pop.
- Cool and strain the simple syrup.
- Muddle the mint and lime juice together in a tall glass.
- Add the rum and simple syrup. Stir to combine.
- Fill the glass with ice cubes – not crushed ice.
- Top with sparkling water and stir.
- Enjoy.
More Holiday Cocktail Recipes
- Boozy Jamaican Eggnog
- White Holiday Margarita
- Spicy Apple Cider Margarita
- Hot Buttered Rum
- Caramel Apple Cider Cocktail
Cranberry Mojitos
Celebrate the Holiday Season with a crisp and refreshing Cranberry Mojito. This take on a classic mojito uses cranberry simple syrup to add a tart/sweet cranberry flavor to the cocktail. It’s perfect for your next holiday party.
- Prep Time: 7 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Starters – Cocktails
- Method: Simmer
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the simple syrup:
- 8 ounces fresh cranberries
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
For the cocktail:
- 20 fresh mint leaves
- 4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
- 4 ounces cranberry simple syrup
- 4 ounces white rum
- Ice cubes
- 4 ounces sparkling water
- Mint leaves, lime slices, and small, fresh cranberries as garnish
Instructions
Make the cranberry simple syrup.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the cranberries, water, and sugar.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the cranberries begin to burst. Use the back of a spoon to pop the berries once they soften.
Set the mixture aside to cool before straining the mixture through a fine mesh sieve. Use the back of a spoon to press as much liquid from the mixture.
Save the cooked berries for another use.
Make the cocktails.
Divide the mint leaves into two tall glasses.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of lime juice into each glass.
Use the end of a wooden spoon or a cocktail muddler to muddle the mint and lime juice together until fragrant.
Pour 2 ounces of the simple syrup and 2 ounces of rum into each glass.
Stir.
Fill the glass ¾ full with ice cubes.
Pour 2 ounces of sparkling water over the ice cubes.
Garnish with slices of lime, fresh berries, and mint leaves.
Enjoy.