Cuba Libre
Rum, cola and fresh lime over ice. The rum and Coke with the one ingredient that turns it into a drink, named for a war and arguing about its birth ever since.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Fill a highball glass with ice.
Add the rum and lime juice.
Top with cold cola and stir once, gently.
Squeeze a lime wedge over the top and drop it in.
A thoughtful finish
- The lime is not a garnish; it is the ingredient that makes this a cocktail. Half an ounce of juice plus a wedge is right.
- A lightly aged rum — a Cuban-style gold or a young Spanish-style añejo — makes a better drink than a neutral white rum.
- Cane-sugar cola, if you can get it, tastes noticeably better than corn-syrup cola with rum.
Common mistakes
- Rum and cola with no lime. That is a rum and Coke, which is fine, but it is not this.
- Flat cola or a warm glass. The drink has no complexity to fall back on if it goes flat.
- Spiced rum. It fights the cola and makes the drink taste of vanilla extract.
A few good questions.
What is the difference between a Cuba Libre and a rum and Coke?
Lime. A Cuba Libre has fresh lime juice; a rum and Coke does not. The lime cuts the sugar and makes the drink.
Which rum?
A Cuban-style light rum — white or lightly aged — is traditional. A funkier Jamaican rum makes a different, bigger drink that some prefer.
Can I use diet cola?
You can; the drink will be thinner and the sweetener shows against rum. Full-sugar cola is the drink.
What does the name mean?
'Free Cuba' — the slogan of the independence movement of the 1890s. The drink's link to it is a story rather than a record.
Variations
- Dark and Stormy — Dark rum and ginger beer.
- Fernet and Coke — Fernet in place of rum — Argentina's version.
- Whiskey and Cola — Bourbon in place of rum.
- Mojito — The other Cuban rum-and-lime highball.
Where it comes from
c. 1900 · Havana, Cuba
Contested. More than one origin is claimed for this drink. We show the competing accounts rather than pick one.
Coca-Cola reached Cuba in 1900, two years after the Spanish-American War and the American occupation, and the story goes that an American officer in a Havana bar mixed it with Bacardi and lime and toasted ‘Por Cuba libre!’ — the slogan of the independence movement. Bacardi has told that story, with a Captain Russell in the lead, since at least 1965, and nobody has found evidence for it; the name ‘Cuba libre’ was attached to other drinks in the 1890s before cola existed. The drink itself is simply what happens when rum, cola and limes share a country, and it became a world standard through the Andrews Sisters’ ‘Rum and Coca-Cola’ in 1945.
Sources
- Wayne Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum, 2006 (book)
- Bacardi company history, 1965 (archive)
- David Wondrich, Imbibe!, 2015 (book)
Strength. About 1.33 US standard drinks at an estimated 10.7% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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