A couple weeks ago my life was consumed with mint, limes and rum. So, too, was the life of my co-worker Heather. That’s because we were waist-deep in our mojito reporting, the results of which you can find here.

Stories like these always sound good at the start, which is why we’ve done it with pizza, burgers and hot dogs. But let me tell you: The benefit of getting free food is quickly diminished by side effects like palate fatigue and rapidly expanding waistlines.

The mojitos were a bit easier, because they arrive instanteously and only require a few sips to make a solid judgement—so, in theory, Heather and I could go through a few mojitos a night (which we both did). After a while we got pretty good at distinguishing a great one from a good from a downright awful one. Personally, a quality mojito always made itself known to me whenever I realized that the glass I was holding was empty.

That’s how I came to name Carnivale’s the best mojito in Chicago. And that is, more or less, how Heather came to name Matchbox’s as hers. As to which one is the absolutely best, that’s still up to you: You can vote here.  To be fair, you should probably try both before voting. And if you want to be really thorough, I suppose you could try all 14 on our list. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.