Grape & Grain | The best places for updated Cuba libres in Hong Kong
The Cuban/American cocktail, which was named after a battle cry during the 1898 Cuban War of Independence, has been given a 21st-century makeover
With Cuban American relations finally returning to some degree of normality – subject, of course, to any bright ideas President Trump may have – there is a buzz of interest surrounding Cuban drinks such as the Mojito, the Daiquiri, and particularly the Cuba libre.
In many bars, the Cuba libre is less grandiosely referred to as a simple rum and coke. There seems to be no meaningful distinction between drinks presented under either name, except that the former has an official International Bartenders Association recipe which includes fresh lime juice, while for the latter, the citrus element is optional.
The drink, the main ingredients of which are distinctively Cuban and American respectively, is more than 100 years old. Nobody knows for sure who first mixed it, or when, but the earliest probable date is 1900, the year Coca-Cola was first exported to Cuba.
It takes its name from a battle cry of the Cuban War of Independence of 1895 to 1898, which ended, along with the Spanish American War, with the Treaty of Paris of 1898, under which the United States and the former colonial power, Spain, both recognised Cuban independence.
The cry was “Por Cuba Libre” meaning “For a Free Cuba” and it became associated with the drink because, according to legend, an anonymous member of the US Signal Corps mixed it in a bar in Old Havana and proposed “Por Cuba Libre” as a toast.