BECAUSE SOMETIMES IT'S JUST TOO HOT TO DRINK BEER:

Mojito frenzy hits U.S. mainstream: It's gone from the drink of old Cuba to the hip and trendy. But now mojitos have reached the mainstream. (ELAINE WALKER, 6/27/06, MiamiHerald.com)

While the mojito has a long way to go before catching up with the top-ranked margarita, DeGroff and other experts believe it's neck and neck with the cosmopolitan.

Don't have time to ''muddle'' the fresh mint leaves, lime juice and sugar for the traditional mojito mixing preparation? Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel offer a mojito mix in a bottle. By next month, frozen Bacardi mojito concentrate will be everywhere from Publix to Wal-Mart.

''Not a lot of consumers are going to make the effort and take the time to make an authentic mojito,'' said Paul Nardone, chief executive of Stirrings, a Massachusetts company that makes the mojito mix for Williams-Sonoma, Delta and its own label. ``It's a very intimidating drink. We solve the problem for a lot of people.''

The mojito mix has quickly become a top seller for Stirrings, and it's not the only one enjoying a spike in sales. Mojito mints are the best selling flavor for Oral Fixation, a mint company whose product is featured at high-end hotels like the Delano. Mint growers like Bill Varney of Fredericksburg Herb Farm in Texas have seen sales double over the past year.

But the one reaping the biggest benefit of the fascination with all things mojito is Bacardi, which has seen rum sales increase about 5 percent each of the past several years, driven in part by mojitos.

For the giant liquor company, whose Cuban roots are intertwined with the drink, that growth hasn't been by chance. Bacardi U.S.A. marketing executives in Miami have been working since the late 1990s on taking the mojito mainstream.