Cubanitas and Hemingway's brought the mojito into the Milwaukee limelight and now many non-Cubano restaurants are serving up this warm-weather cocktail with their own unique spins (you can now find mango mojitos and dark rum mojitos in some of your favorite haunts).

And while it is great on a warm day to sit at a bar and suck these babys down with a couple of appetizers, my advice to you is that when you are planting your garden this year, set up a patch to grow mint and use it to mix a pitcher of homemade mojitos on the porch.

Mint is a wonderful herb because it is great for cooking and it will grow just about anywhere. It also happens to be fabulous in cocktails. Sprigs of mint are wonderful with chocolate, ice cream, cucumber salads, with grilled lambchops and chicken dishes and in mint juleps, mojitos, and white sangrias.

To make a mojito:

Ice (cubed or crushed)
1 ½ ounces rum
1 tbsp raw sugar or cane sugar
1 Lime, cut into 6 wedges
Mint sprigs
Club soda

Take one sprig of mint and slice the leaves into ribbons. In a tall glass, mix together ice, the mint ribbons, the juice from three lime wedges, and sugar and mix together (muddle) with a stir stick. When the sugar is dissolved, add the rum and fill the glass to the top with ice and club soda. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a lime wedge.