Rum

Cuba Libre

Name: Cuba Libre
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Highball

Havana's turn-of-the-century cola-and-rum highball, three ingredients, one revolution-era toast.

rum cuban classic built lime sparkling

Ingredients

ice cubes (1 cup)
fresh lime juice (0.5 oz)
light Cuban-style rum (2 oz)
cold Coca-Cola (4 oz)
lime wedge (1)

The standard origin story comes from Fausto Rodríguez's 1965 notarized affidavit (later run as a Bacardi Life magazine ad in 1966): in August 1900, a US Army Signal Corps captain at the American Bar in Havana ordered Bacardi over ice with the newly imported Coca-Cola and a wedge of lime, and a fellow soldier raised the toast "¡Por Cuba libre!"¹ Rodríguez was a Bacardi advertising executive when he swore the affidavit, and historians including David Wondrich have noted the obvious conflict of interest, an alternate El Floridita-1902 origin also circulates, but the 1900 Havana story remains the canonical one.²^,³

Brand recommendations. Best: Havana Club 3 Año (where legal) or Bacardi Heritage for the light Cuban-style rum, Mexican Coca-Cola in glass bottles (cane sugar, period-correct sweetener profile). Economical: Bacardi Superior (the original 1900 brand and still the value pick) or Don Q Cristal, regular HFCS Coca-Cola.

Instructions

Fill a highball glass with ice cubes.
Squeeze fresh lime juice (about half a lime) over the ice and drop the spent shell into the glass.
Add light Cuban-style rum.
Top with cold Coca-Cola and stir gently.
Garnish with a lime wedge.

Sources

Bacardi corporate / Life magazine, 1966 advertisement reproducing Fausto Rodríguez's 1965 notarized affidavit, primary-source attestation of the August 1900 American Bar / Havana origin and the "Por Cuba libre" toast; cited here for the canonical narrative with the conflict-of-interest caveat noted in the prose. ↩
Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum (2006), Cuba Libre chapter, discusses Rodríguez's Bacardi-employment conflict of interest, the alternate El Floridita-1902 origin, and the earlier (pre-Coca-Cola) "Cuba libre" toast/drink that was simply water and brown sugar. ↩
"Rum and Coke." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_and_Coke (accessed 2026-05-03), secondary-source summary of the disputed origin story, including the Wondrich skepticism; paired here with Curtis as supporting context. ↩