Bacardi Cocktail
45 ml White rum, 20 ml Lime juice, 10 ml Grenadine, 1 Lime wedge
Cuba Libre
Rum, cola and lime - the world's most relaxed long drink.
Classic
Easy
2 min
Photo: Cuba Libre 01 by Arnaud 25 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
- 50 ml Jigger The large side of a standard jigger, filled to the top: 50 ml, with 25 ml on the other side. White rum
- 120 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 120 ml line. Cola
- 10 ml Spoons Two teaspoons. Lime juice - The squirt of lime is what separates this from a rum and coke
- 1 wedge Lime wedge (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Rum and lime over ice, cola on top, stir once and garnish.
Method
- Fill a highball glass with ice.
- Pour in the white rum and the lime juice.
- Top with cola and stir gently once or twice.
- Squeeze a lime wedge over the surface and drop it in.
Serve it
Cuba Libre
Havana, some time around 1900: a bar, a bottle of rum, a brand-new American cola, and a lime. The story goes that a soldier raised his glass to the end of Spanish rule with the words "por Cuba libre" - for a free Cuba - and the drink took the toast as its name. A century later it is still the easiest way to make a bottle of cola taste like an evening.
Getting it right
The lime is not a garnish, it is the ingredient that distinguishes this from a rum and coke - so measure it in rather than waving a wedge nearby. White rum is the traditional choice: it keeps the drink crisp and lets the cola do the sweet talking. Build it in the glass, over plenty of ice, and stir just enough to chill it. It is worth using a cola you actually like the taste of, since it is most of the drink.
Tasting notes
Sweet vanilla and caramel cola, with grassy rum underneath and a bright line of lime through the middle. Long, cold and undemanding - a drink for a warm evening and good company.
Swap the cola for ginger beer and a squeeze of lime and you have a Dark 'n' Stormy; swap the rum for bourbon and you have something the Americans call a Kentucky Mule's cousin. It is a very adaptable sort of drink.
More White rum cocktails
Blue Hawaiian
45 ml White rum, 20 ml Blue curaçao, 60 ml Pineapple juice, 20 ml Coconut cream, 15 ml Lemon juice, 1 wedge Pineapple, 1 Maraschino cherry
Daiquiri
60 ml White rum, 25 ml Lime juice, 15 ml Simple syrup, 1 Lime wedge