Cuba Libre

The Cuba Libre is a tall, built highball of light rum, cola and a squeeze of fresh lime, served over ice — the "rum and Coke" raised a notch by the lime, and one of the most widely drunk cocktails in the world. It is dark cola-brown, long and refreshing, sweet and fizzy with a clean spirit lift and a sharp citrus edge. Its name — Cuba Libre, "Free Cuba" — was a slogan of the Cuban independence movement, and the drink is tied to the arrival of bottled Coca-Cola in Cuba just after 1900. Simple to the point of being almost not a cocktail at all, it lives or dies on the fresh lime: the squeeze and the wedge are what separate a Cuba Libre from a plain rum and cola.