Mojito local tropical ingredients: lime, sugarcane juice, and mint. Lime juice on its own would have significantly prevented scurvy and dysentery, and tafia/rum was soon added as it became widely available to the British (ca. 1650). Mint, lime and sugar were also helpful in hiding the harsh taste of this spirit. While this drink was not called a Mojito at this time, it was the original combination of these ingredients. Some historians contend that African slaves who worked in the Cuban sugar cane fields during the 19th century were instrumental in the cocktail's origin. Guarapo, the sugar cane juice often used
Bethuel Kitchen Bethuel Kitchen Bethuel Middleton Kitchen (March 21, 1812 – December 15, 1895) was a nineteenth-century politician from Virginia and West Virginia. Born in Ganotown, Virginia (now West Virginia), Kitchen attended common schools as a child and later engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising. He was a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1861 and 1862 under the Restored Government of Virginia. On May 28, 1863, Kitchen was elected from Virginia's 7th District to the United States House of Representatives. He presented his credentials as a member-elect to the 38th United States Congress in December 1863, but