Anyone? Pre-mixed mojitos that don't taste like pool cleaner? No? I'd love to know a shortcut to this week's featured cocktail. As yet, I haven't found any pre-mixed version that doesn't make me immediately regret the time saved.

WEEK 44:

Mojito

1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp superfine sugar
6 to 8 mint leaves
2 ounce light rum
3 to 4 ounces chilled club soda
Fresh mint sprig

CLASSIC: In a highball glass, muddle together the lime juice, sugar, and mint eaves until the sugar dissolves. Add rum. Fill the glass with ice and top it off with club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig.
    -or-
SHAKEN: Shake all the ingredients, sans the club soda, vigorously with ice. Pour everything into a highball glass and top with club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Sure it's a little out of season for most of us, but that's kind of the point. It's dead of winter in Chicago. It's cold, it's dark, and it feels like it's going to last forever. The temp is in the teens, my car's engine is frozen, and the battery is as dead as our former Governor Blago's career. So how do I celebrate? By happy accident, I have the ingredients to make a Cuban concoction with a taste so heavenly it conjures sand, palms, and the mocha-colored skin of hips gyrating to island music. The mojito was one of Papa Hemingway's favorites, and it's no mystery why. No doubt many a tumbler served as sustenance in the penning of The Old Man and the Sea. Toasting a Cuban sunrise with the real Santiago is moment I'd have killed to have been a part of, but for now, I'll toast the end of winter until it finally arrives. Cheers.

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