It's best to use a wooden pestle, but the back end of a wooden utensil can get the job done. Muddle the lime and sugar in the bottom of the glass first. The goal is to get a good syrup. Put a bit of mint (2 leaves) in last and lightly muddle so as not to break them up into bits. Add your ice to the top of the glass. Add your Rum, and then add your Club Soda then mix by moving your utensil up and down through the ice. Add a couple of mint leaves during this process. The ice will help bruise the mint during the mix. Finally, take about 12 mint leaves in your hands. Clap your hands together to bruise the leaves helping to induce the mint juice/flavor out. (I'll bet that rolling pin method would work well here). Jam the leaves down the ice with your utensil.
The proper way:
1) Put the bombilla into the gourd.
2) Put the mate in the gourd.
3) Invert, shake vigorously, revert. If possibe, make a small "mountain top" on the oposite side where the bombilla enters the mate tea.
4) Add a small amount of cold water (this isn't necessary--as I understand, this step helps to keep from burning the mate, which can also be accomplished by using water under 180℉~82℃), wait for a few minutes, until the mate absorbs the water.
5) Add hot water, drink.
6) Repeat step 5.
Don't move the bombilla while drinking, as this will cause you to stir up little bits. Inverting and shaking isn't necessary if the mate is of high quality (low dust). You can make mate to low dust by putting it in a metal sieve and shaking. Save the dust and small leaves that fall out--they can be used to brew mate in a coffee pot.
It is also worth noting that you can brew mate in a coffee pot or a french press and achieve similar results, although the resulting beverage isn't quite the same as drinking from the bombilla.
Also, the second most common way to prepare it is like plain tea: put some mate tea in a paper bag and steep with hot water for several minutes. This is called mate cocido (cooked mate) and is not uncommon to offer it to children.
Best Answer
A traditional Manhattan is two shots of rye or bourbon, one shot of sweet vermouth, a dash of bitters and a cherry, shaken and strained into a martini glass. I prefer on the rocks in a rocks glass, myself.
A perfect Manhattan is similar, but uses a half shot each of sweet and dry vermouth. They tend to be more interesting when paired with a higher quality whiskey.
I'm also a big fan of white whiskey (aka, high quality moonshine) in Manhattans.