This virgin spiced pear mojito will make your Sunday

A delicious combination of herbs, fruit and spice that awakens various areas of your palate. If making your own cinnamon syrup, this is a drink you can truly call homemade. Extra points if the mint has been picked from your garden. Feel free to vary the proportions to suit your taste. For more tartness, add another lime wedge. To sweeten, add more sugar syrup or for more spice, add more cinnamon syrup.

Spiced Pear Mojito

Ingredients
10-12 mint leaves
100ml pear juice
3 lime wedges
10ml sugar syrup
15ml cinnamon syrup (see below)
25ml sparkling water
sprig of mint and wedges of lime, to garnish

Method
For the cinnamon syrup – put 480ml water and 4 cinnamon sticks into a small pan; bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks, bring the water back to the boil and add 345g sugar, stirring until it has dissolved. Cool and then pour into a sterilised bottle.  Store in the fridge.

This drink is made and served in the same glass. Place the mint leaves in a Casablanca glass and add a drop of pear juice, just enough to wet the leaves. Muddle for a few seconds. When you muddle, you are bruising the leaves just enough to coax out the flavour. Squeeze the lime wedges into the glass and drop them in, followed by the sugar syrup. Mint, sugar, and lime – the base of the Mojito. Add the cinnamon syrup and stir. Fill a glass two-thirds with crushed ice. Add the rest of the pear juice and sparkling water. Stir once more. Add two straws. Garnish with lime wedges and a sprig of mint.

Add a twist
For a spicy version of the traditional Cuban, add white rum.

Extracted from The Virgin Cocktail Garden: Refreshing Mocktails and Botanical Cocktails Made From the Finest Fruits and Herbal Infusions by David Hurst (Modern Books, approx €15).