Cuba Libre

This classic, which also goes by the less mellifluous name “rum and Coke with lime,” is one of the most popular drinks in the world, thanks to the relentless marketing efforts of the Bacardi company and wide availability of its ingredients.  As the rum behemoth’s publicity machine has been telling it for over a century, the soda drink was “invented” in Cuba in 1900 at the tail end of the Spanish-American War, insofar as the act of adding cola to rum amounts to invention. As the (apocryphal) story goes, while celebrating the U.S. victory over Spain in Havana, a young army captain ordered Bacardi rum with Coca-Cola and a slice of lime. He then issued a rallying cry— “Por Cuba libre!”— and launched an altogether new kind of revolution.