The Cuba Libre

The Cuba Libre —also known as “Rum and Coca-Cola,” after its two main ingredients (the others being ice and, sometimes, lime juice)—is one of the most popular mixed drinks in the world. The Bacardi company has long backed the story that it was invented by an American soldier in Havana in 1898 or 1900, but there are discrepancies in the details, and the story is without contemporary documentation. See Bacardi. There is, however, a record of a “Cuba Libre cocktail” being served to a Cuban delegation in Washington, DC, in 1898 (Cuba libre, “Free Cuba,” was the slogan of the forces opposed to Spanish rule of that country), but the only description of it we have mentions that it was refreshing and was served in frosted glasses with crossed Cuban and American flags with sprigs of mint between them.

In fact, the combination of rum and Coca-Cola does not appear in print as the Cuba Libre until the late 1920s. The combination is considerably older than that: American adventurer Dean Ivan Lamb recalled being introduced to it in Venezuela in 1906, and Coca-Cola’s Midwest distributor was pushing the “Coca Cola Highball” in the United States, albeit with whisky or gin, by 1902. See Highball. Nonetheless, Coca-Cola was available in Cuba from 1900 on, and the combination is a natural one, so an early Cuban origin cannot be discounted. In any case, the drink reached its apogee in America during World War II, when the availability of Coca-Cola and cheap rum (and the lack of bourbon or rye), along with a catchy song to promote it, rendered its use near-universal. After the war, Americans took to replacing the rum with whisky, while the increased penetration of Coca-Cola into Central and South America and indeed many other parts of the world saw the drink made with local spirits and even wine. See Batanga and Calimotxo. Conversely, after the Cuban Revolution bartenders there had to replace the Coca-Cola with a local equivalent.

Recipe: Squeeze half a lime into an ice-filled highball glass. Add 60 ml white rum and 60–75 ml cold Coca-Cola, stir briefly, and insert the squeezed-out lime shell and a straw.

“Cuba’s Commission.” Washington Evening Star, December 1, 1898, 1.

Lamb, Dean Ivan. The Incurable Filibuster. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934.

“Pure Food Attracted Hundreds.” Detroit Free Press, November 11, 1902, 11.

By: David Wondrich