Beijing Boyce

Whether in a five-star hotel lounge or a dingy bar on Sanlitun South, few people are as objective when evaluating a cocktail as is Agent Red Wolf (RW). She can block out any surrounding chaos and focus solely on the quality of a given beverage. Simply put, when lip meets glass, not even the shiniest object can distract her. Here are her top five Mojitos, with the establishment’s name (in alphabetical order), followed by the drink price (as closely as can be remembered), number of visits, and comments (if any).

Beer Mania: ~35 kuai; 2 visits; “This is closer to a tailor-made drink; you should only have the Mojito at Beer Mania if Marc [the manager] is making them.”

Centro: ~70 kuai+15%; 10+ visits; “Centro and Redmoon consistently make a high-quality Mojito.”

Garden of Delights: ~70 kuai; 1 visit; “The mint was fresh and the rum was good, though I asked for more soda water, as their Mojito was too sweet for me.”

Redmoon: ~70 kuai+15%; 6-7 visits.

Suzy Wong: ~40 kuai; dozens of visits; “A lot of guys here are poseurs [yes, she picked up this word from me], but this place has good drinks.”

RW also recalled some Mojito memories from Beijing past.

First Cafe: 50 kuai; last year during the “GE [George and Echo] era;” (now, says RW, the Mojito at First Cafe “is not even in the top 20″).

Havana : 40 kuai; more than two years ago.

Latinos: 40 kuai; until recently.

For more details on RW’s rankings, email agent_redwolf@yahoo.com (”No poseurs,” she says).

(From Beijing Boyce XIV, first emailed on April 6, 2006)