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CUBAN COCKTAILS HAVE ELBOWED ITS WAY INTO A DESERVED NICHE OF THE NATIONAL PREFERENCE, AMONG VISITORS AND ALL AROUND THE GLOBE BY THE HAND OF ITS TEN CLASSICS, HEADED BY DAIQUIRI, MOJITO AND CUBA LIBRE

I’m gonna drink you in just one sip, like a cup of rum
Excerpt from Secuestro de la mujer de Antonio, Sóngoro Cosongo Poem Book, Nicolás Guillén, 1931

A well-pointed metaphor that refers to the silver-dry and golden aged rums distilled in Cuba is the title of this article. It wasn’t only a different sweetness the large island garnered as sugarcane came to the New World, brought by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage back in 1493. Huge and greedy amazement swept colonizers off their feet when they discovered that the juice squeezed out of this plant, that always bears fruit before blooming, could be exposed to the sun, fermented after taking some water and able to give birth to the legitimate forerunner of today’s eau de vies and rums: tafia.
Even though the origin of rum in America has not been unraveled, it’s believed to be generically Caribbean. Insularity, winds and marine currents, edaphic and climatological features, coupled with history and traditions, have prompted the making of light rum in Cuba for over a century and a half, a presentation card of what good drinking is all about. It was Don Facundo Bacardi Masso who began to distill this beverage in Santiago de Cuba back in 1862. His son Emilio Bacardi Moreau, an outstanding and cultivated benefactor of his hometown who was teeming with patriotic values, followed in his father’s footsteps. His successors left the country in the early 1960s and set up the brand in other nations.
Time is ripe to bring up a statement made by Don Facundo, published in The Book of Cuba in 1925: “Indeed, there’s never been or will be any moment in history, nor in any other country, a rum like ours. Not even similar to it. Those distilled in countries other than Cuba don’t count on the best raw material there is, which are precisely the molasses from Cuban sugarcane.”
The enforcement of the so-called Prohibition or Volstead Act, enacted by Senator A. Volstead on January 18, 1920 in the U.S., made bars and the dispensing of drinks in Cuba reach their heyday. This legislation prohibited the importation, distilling, sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks in the United States of America between 1920 and 1935, based on the harm the intake of hard drinks could cause to human health and society. This restriction brought shiploads of American citizens to the bars of Havana, which together with the generalized use of ice –obtained by manmade refrigerating methods- in the making of cocktails, redounded to the benefit of Cuban bartenders who were forced to step up their training and expertise. What’s more, a fledgling increase in tourism, basically from the U.S., also played a role in this development.
By this time, it’s not a mistake to speak about the full development of the rum-making industry nationwide, as well as the height and refinement of the local gastronomic facilities. A number of now-larger-than-life establishments reached their peaks, such as El Floridita, with 200 years under its belt and nestled in Old Havana (declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1982), and where American writer Ernest Hemingway left his mark there for forever more. It was him who made bartenders change the original daiquiri recipe, that eventually poured twice as much rum, no sugar, and added grapefruit juice and maraschino liquor. Back in those days, the celebrated author, who was staying at the Ambos Mundos (Both Worlds) Hotel in Old Havana, where he lived from 1932 to 1939, used to hang out at El Floridita and in La Bodeguita del Medio, a shrine to Cuban culture and cuisine, where he always had the drink of the house: the mojito. This place in particular preserves an original autograph written by the author of The Old Man and the Sea in 1954 that reads: “My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita”.
Another major locale in Havana is Sloppy Joe’s, one of the world’s most famous bars. Penciled in as the hangout of choice for tourists and Hollywood stars during the first half of the 20th century, the bar was founded in 1918. One of its main attractions is the fact that the bar got a new lease on life with an all-out remodeling that brought it back to its original splendor. Its 18-meter-long bar counter was back in the day the longest in Cuba and one of the biggest in the Americas. It was the setting for the shooting of the movie “Our Man in Havana” in 1959, starred by Alec Guinness and based on the novel by British writer
Graham Greene, another bar regular. Let’s take a look at what Greene himself expressed on the so-called “birthplace of daiquiri”: “I’ve been to the men’s bar at the Waldorf Astoria, the Savoy Bar in London and the American Bar in Paris. I’ve drunk whiskey in Shepherds; gin and angostura at the Grand Oriental in Calcutta. I know Piscos Sours at the Hotel Carrera in Curacao. I’ve visited the Adlon in Berlin, the Bristol in Vienna, the Chianling House in Chungking, the Plaza in Buenos Aires. But based on my experience, La Florida (it was later renamed as El Floridita) is the best bar in the world.”
Cuban cocktails have elbowed its way into a deserved niche of the national preference, among visitors and all around the globe by the hand of its ten classics: Daiquiri, Mojito, Cuba Libre, Presidente, Mary Pickford, Havana Special, Cubanito, Saoco, Isla de Pinos and Mulata.
The daiquiri is known as Cuba’s most representative cocktail on the basis of the documented references that ascertain this selection. Several international rankings speak volumes of the universal acclaim this drink has: second place in the 2014 Top Ten List of the World’s Most Famous Cocktails; fourth place on the 2016 The Bar Mexico’s top ten list, and the fourth spot on the World's 50 Bestselling Classic Cocktails 2016 Drinks International.
Cuba boasts several bestselling rum brands worldwide: Havana Club, that according to the ranking pieced together by British publication Drink International in January 2012, nabbed the top spot among the polled bartenders that had worked in the best fifty bars of the world in 2010. It’s considered the second most popular rum brand of the planet, the number one among the bestselling brands and it heads the list of the Barmen’s Top Ten. It’s also the most sought-after brand according to a survey conducted among bartenders (12 percent of those who took the poll are American bartenders, considering that the brand has never pried into the U.S. market). Its production comprises Blanco, Añejo 3 Años, Especial, Reserva and 7 Años, together with its Colección Icónica de Selección de Maestros, Añejo 15 Años Gran Reserva, Colección Tributo (annually limited), Unión and Máximo Extra Añejo.
Other highlights are the ones produced under Corporación Cuba Ron, S.A., such as Isla del Tesoro Extra Añejo rum, Cubay (Carta Blanca, Carta Dorada, Añejo Suave, Añejo, Extra-Añejo 150 Aniversario, Carta Blanca Extra Viejo, Extra Añejo 1870 and Elixir 33) rums; Cubay licorices (banana, pineapple, anise, coconut, lemon, cacao, coffee, Triple Sec, Maraschino, Grenadine and green mint); Perla del Norte rums (Carta Blanca, Añejo and Carta de Oro), and Santiago de Cuba rums (Carta Blanca, Añejo, Añejo Superior 11 años, Extra Añejo 12 años, Extra Añejo 485, 490 and 500 Aniversario de la Fundación de la Villa Santiago de Cuba, Extra Añejo Siglo and Medio del Ron Ligero).
The Bartender Club of the Republic of Cuba was founded in 1924, the first of its kind in the Americas. Since then, it had had its continuation in today’s Association of Cuban Bartenders. In addition to its foundational precepts of Fraternity and Progress, the professionalism and creativity of its members are elements worth underscoring. It was a Cuban the first Latin American ever to win the IBA (International Bartender Association) World Cup during a competition held in Spain’s Seville back in 2003.
So, now you know it. If you really want to swing by Cuba, drink peerless rum after a sip of good coffee and puff on of a well-wrapped habano cigar, don’t think twice. There’s nothing closer to touching heaven with your bare hands.