Cocktail · Medium strength
Cuba Libre
Rum, cola, lime — three ingredients and a hundred years of Havana nights.
How to order it: The lime is what separates it from a rum and Coke. Don't skip the lime.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 2 oz white rum
- 4 oz cola
- ½ lime, squeezed and dropped in
- Build over ice in a highball
- The lime is mandatory
The story
The Cuba Libre dates to Havana around 1900, in the afterglow of the Spanish-American War, when Coca-Cola first arrived on the island and met Cuban rum with American soldiers as witnesses. Legend has a toast of "Por Cuba libre!", to a free Cuba, christening the mixture; Bacardi long promoted the account of one Fausto Rodriguez, who claimed to have seen the very first one poured, though historians treat the affidavit with a raised eyebrow. The Andrews Sisters' 1945 hit "Rum and Coca-Cola" made the combination a hemisphere-wide habit. It endures because the lime is doing more work than anyone admits.
Adjacent pours