How to make a Mojito and New Year's Eve in Goa

How to make a Mojito and New Year's Eve in Goa

Posted by admin on

Warning -
This is a weekend fun post - or rather a slight diversion from our weekday healthy and weighty matters!

Candolim beach

I'm not a sucker for cocktails. Too much sugar syrup and the weird colours are enough to put me off. But Mojito (pronounced MOHITO) is different from your regular cocktail. We were ushering in 2007 in Goa, the hip and happening Baga and Candolim beaches in North Goa. The last I'd been there was for my office picnic in the summer of 2004 which was to the Ramada resort in South Goa. We had pretty much the whole beach to our crazy bunch, the DJ playing music all night and free booze flowing. All this in an office picnic and more...I used to work one cool ad agency, before you all start imagining about where I used to work - haha!


New Year's Eve in Goa
More about our New year's Eve visit - Candolim is a beach where most of the charters from UK and Scotland land. Pretty much every local speaks English with a Brit accent - because that's the only English they hear and learn and that's what matters to their business.

View from Chiplun enroute to Goa

We drove down from Bombay to Goa. It was almost a 12 hour drive, and we reached there by nightfall on the 29th. The whole of 30th was spent lolling around on the beach chairs and the warm beach waters. The who's who were there trying to chill out and yet be seen! The time we weren't in the water, we were on the beach chairs reading a book, trying to protect ourself from the fury of the sun, while the 'solarically' deprived people were trying to expose every inch of their skin to get that fashionable tan which we Indians are inherently born with. Well, atleast I am!

( On the mention of tan - I always recollect that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer goes off to sleep in a tanning salone and comes home all browned up like a chocolate cookie! )

As much as I'd like to, I can't share with you my beach pics (except for a sneak peek) as those were the days before I had shed off my excesses!

Sky, Water and Earth

Britto's at Baga Beach, Bardez, North Goa

On the 31st afternoon, we landed at Britto's - a restaurant & bar on Baga beach. This is 'the place' everyone is Goa wants to see and be seen at. The place was throbbing with life, style, food and ofcourse mojito ! Landing up there at 2 pm for lunch wasn't a great idea after all, we were some 203 on the waiting list and people inside wanted to hang out for some more (and some more) time. So the best option was to start guzzling on the most popular drink in the house, from the bar counter at the entrance. Boy! They do know how to make their business roll.

This is a beautiful looking drink in a broad pint glass with a bunch of mint leaves stuck in and some wedges of lemon. If you just saw it, you'd think it's flavoured water - the way they serve it in US with a huge slice of lime. But one sip, and you'll realise that it's a different story altogether. If you gulp it down, you'll forget what the story was!!

I hadn't heard of Mojito until that day and got hooked to it instantly. The fresh flavours, the warm sea breeze, the ambience, the ubercool people - plus the drink had that kind of effect on me!

Now, whenever I recreate it at home, I just have to close my eyes and I'm in Goa on New year's Eve. If you are too far away from Goa, trying making a Mojito at home and I promise you'll feel much closer to the sea!

This week's Friday Food Video - How to make a Mojito Cocktail
If you cannot see the video below, click here to view.



More on Mojito here

Technorati tags: Goa, Mojito, Candolim, Baga beach, Britto's