Mojitos for Everyone!

Ingredients
One pint glass
fresh mint (~12 leaves, give or take)
1 lime, cut into wedges
simple syrup*
RUM
sparking water
ice

Directions
1) Take mint leaves, place in glass. Take 1 lime wedge, squeeze juice into glass. Put lime wedge aside for later.
2) Smoosh mint leaves/lime juice with a wooden spoon until the mint is properly bruised, but not yet pulverized.
3)Squeeze lime wedges into glass. Put wedges into glass (along with the one from Step 1). I use ~1/3 to 1/2 of a lime per drink.
4) Add ~3 Tbsp of simple syrup.
5) Add rum to taste. Less if you're a wuss, more if you drink like I do. Trust me, the rum is really not all that noticeable in this. Stir.
6) Add ice. THEN sparkling water. Stir. The idea is that you want the mint/lime below the ice so you're not constantly straining crushed mint with your teeth. This is ok if you're drinking at home by yourself, not so great if you're with others and you get a big blob of mint in your teeth.
7) Drink up and repeat until you've got a good buzz.

*simple syrup = 2:1 sugar:water. Boil water in saucepan, add double the amount of sugar into boiling water, dissolve. Store in a seal-able container in the fridge. This is rumored to keep indefinitely. If you don't feel like making the simple syrup, you can just add plain sugar, but then you'll end up with a crunchy mojito.