This is rum and cola given purpose by a squeeze of fresh lime: the citrus cuts through the cola's sweetness, so the white rum reads clean and the whole drink lands bright, cold and effervescent. Built straight over ice in a tall glass, it stays endlessly easygoing, and that sharp edge of lime is all that separates it from a plain Rum & Coke.
Garnish: Lime Wedge
built · Highball · On the Rocks
build
Fill a highball glass with ice.
add
Add the white rum and fresh lime juice over the ice.
top
Top with cold cola.
stir
Give a brief, gentle stir to combine without knocking out the carbonation.
garnish
Garnish with a lime wedge.
Legend places its birth in Havana in the years following the 1898 Spanish-American War, its name taken from the toast "¡Por Cuba libre!" The most repeated version rests on a 1966 affidavit notarized by Fausto Rodriguez, who recalled American soldiers mixing it around 1900 — but Rodriguez worked for Bacardi, and his story is widely doubted as commercially suspect. A rival account credits El Floridita in 1902, no documented inventor has ever stood up, and today the drink is a genericized classic listed among the IBA's official cocktails.