Cuba Libre
Rum and cola with a real squeeze of lime. The lime is what turns a simple mixer into a drink with a name.
- MethodBuilt
- GlassHighball glass
- IceCubes
- Strengthabout 11.9% ABV
- BaseRum
- Tastesweet, refreshing
Recipe
| 60 ml 2 oz | White rum (light, Spanish-style) or Aged rum |
| 15 ml ½ oz | Fresh lime juice |
| Top up: 120 ml 4 oz | Cola |
Garnish. A lime wedge, squeezed into the drink or perched on the rim for the drinker to squeeze.
Method
- Fill a highball glass with ice.
- Add the rum and lime juice.
- Top with cold cola and stir once, gently, to keep the fizz.
- Garnish with a lime wedge.
About the Cuba Libre
The Cuba Libre is rum and cola, but the lime matters: it cuts the cola's sweetness and makes the drink taste brighter and drier. A light rum gives a clean, simple highball; an aged rum makes it rounder and more spiced.
History
Documented
"¡Cuba libre!" ("free Cuba") was the cry of the Cuban independence movement in the wars of the late 19th century. Coca-Cola began reaching Cuba in the early 20th century, and the rum-and-cola highball under this name appears in print by the late 1920s. The combination became famous worldwide through "Rum and Coca-Cola", a calypso from Trinidad adapted into an American hit by the Andrews Sisters in 1945.
Legend and lore
The standard origin story, promoted in Bacardi advertising, says an American soldier in Havana mixed the first one around 1900 and toasted "Cuba libre!". It rests on an account given decades later by a Bacardi advertising executive, Fausto Rodríguez, who said he had been present as a young man. There is no contemporary record of the scene.
Disputed or unclear: The year of the first Cuba Libre is unknown; the timeline uses 1900, the date of the popular origin story, which is not documented.
Variations
- Rum and Coke. The same drink without the lime; noticeably sweeter and flatter.
- Cuba Libre Preparado. Add a little gin and a few dashes of bitters for a drier, more complex highball.
- Mojito. The other Havana highball, with mint, lime and soda instead of cola.
Bartender's notes
- Use cola from a small, cold bottle or can; a flat, warm bottle makes a dull drink.
- Drop the squeezed lime shell into the glass; its oils add more than the juice alone.
