Cocktail recipe
Cuba Libre
Rum and cola with a decisive squeeze of lime: familiar, refreshing and unmistakably Cuban in inspiration.
Ingredients
- 50 ml (1⅔ oz) white rum
- 120 ml (4 oz) chilled cola
- 15 ml (½ oz) freshly squeezed lime juice
- ice.
- Garnish: Lime wedge.
Preparation
Pack a highball with fresh ice. Add rum and lime juice, then pour chilled cola down the inside of the glass to retain carbonation. Give the drink a single gentle lift with a spoon. Tuck a fresh lime wedge against the rim. The lime should register as a bright snap, not disappear beneath the cola.
Glassware
Highball glass
History
“Cuba libre”—“Free Cuba”—evokes the island's independence struggles and the turn-of-the-century arrival of cola and American influence. One popular origin tale places US soldiers and Cuban rum with Coca-Cola in Havana around 1900; the exact toast, bartender and first mixing are difficult to establish from contemporary documentation. Rum-and-cola combinations became widely known in the twentieth century, with lime distinguishing the classic Cuba Libre from a generic rum and Coke. Claims about a single inventor should be treated as folklore unless supported by period evidence.
Mixology View
The lime is the point. Use enough to cut cola's sweetness while keeping the rum visible; it's a proper cocktail, not merely a two-bottle shortcut.