Cuba Libre/Rum and Coke invented by Bacardi?

[Jason Perlow]

My understanding is that the Rum and Coke, or Cuba Libre, was introduced in the 1960's from a Bacardi advertisment co-sponsored with Coca-Cola.

Any truth to this? I would have imagined that this natural combination would have been tried a lot earlier than the 60's.

[Ed Hamilton]

I don't have an exact date but rum and coca cola gained popularity from a song sung in Trinidad during world war II. To this day Coca Cola will not market their product in association with rum, since they want a much broader base that isn't subject to the politics of being associated with alcohol.

I believe it was Morey Amsterdam who heard the song in Trinidad and then sang it in the states where it immediately became popular.

[tony]

Actually, the song "Rum and Coca-Cola"

was performed by the Andrews Sisters during

WW2. Not sure if Bacardi was behind the recipe.  

[JOHN REEKIE]

"RUM AND COCA-COLA"..... "CUBA LIBRE" (also known as Bacardi & Coke) Come from two different Islands! Come from two time periods! Have two totaly different back grounds! Only conection is RUM + COCA COLA. I have not looked up all my reference but will be glad to get back to this site later.  But take RUM AND COCA-COLA, In Trinidad the during the last War, The American forces  with 'Land Lease" ( where the British Goverment gave in each colonial island long lease arangements for US Bases in exchange for Food and Arms/planes/ships etc) The Coca-Cola Company had a contract that allowed them sole distribution of Coke, and to get the conract Coca-Cola agreed that Coke would be available to any front line personel within twenty four hours, so Coke was bottled all over the world during the war. Unlike the British and other navies/forces, the Americans forces had been dry for approx twenty years. So here was the Americans in Trinidad, on leave,looking for R&R and finding they had the Coke and the Trinadians had the girls and the Rum. The Calipso was writen by Lord Invader using an old tune from Martinique,"L'Annee Passe". Morey Amsterdam was stationed in Trinidad in 1943, and had heard it there. On returning to America, he rewrote the song and had it performed by the Andrew Sisters to become one of the wars great raly songs. Lord Invader then sued M.A. and the Andrew Sisters and years later won the plagiarism case. For more details see "CALYPSO CALALOO-Early Carnival Music in Trinidad" by Donald Hills, University Press of Florida ,1993. pages 234-240   Cuba Libre is another story invented in Cuba approx eighteen years later, which I will get to on another day .

John Reekie     jr- rumsearching@hotmail.com

[JOHN REEKIE]

I am still looking up some facinating facts on Cuba Libre, will reply soon.

[JOHN REEKIE]

CUBA LIBRE! CUBA LIBRE! Shouted the barman in the old American Bar on Calle Neptuna in Habana in August 1898. This was at the end of the Spanish American War when America, on the side of Cuba, helped them gain independence from Spain. So the story unfolds.-- This was after an American Lieutenant ordered "a tot of Bacardi rum". (He might have been ordering an ordinary tot of rum, or any other Cuban name brands, we do not know, but the story goes that it was Bacardi.)  In the same bar, the story goes on, some other Americans Officers were drinking the new syrup & soda drink, named Coca-Cola. (I find it hard to believe they were drinking Coke by itself, for in thoes days the U.S.Navy was still "wet" up untill 1910. Why would sailors on shore leave go into a Cuban bar to drink Coca-Cola by its self! The Lieutenant mixed his rum with some coke and the first "RUM AND COKE was made!.(or was it the first BACARDI AND COKE). The Barman shouted "CUBA LIBRE" in a form of a toast and the Americans thought it was the name of the drink!...Well so the story goes, as told by "Rum, yesterday & today", by Bacardi in their various ads in the 1960's and in "Family Spirits" the Bacardi Saga by Peter Foster.

In the mid 60's Bacardi approched Coca-Cola about a joint venture in marketing of Bacardi and Coke but was playing down the Cuba Libre side as the drink was called since the turn of the century. Castro's revolution of 1959 had seen Bacardi leave Cuba and the Americans were no longer on good terms with the new Cuban government. The first Ad appeared May 1966 in Life magazine "Things go better with Coke". Family Spirits say the story in the ad was different-- " It was a U.S.cavalry sargent , pouring from a bottle of Bacardi into a civilians glass of Coke" beneath the photo the caption reads --"so thats how RUM AND COKE was invented the photo and ad shows no reference to Cuba or the date and the uniforms are non discript.        End of Story.

1862  Bacardi established  -Santiago, Cuba.  

1886  Coke invented        -Atlanta, U.S.A.

1891  Coca-Cola trademarked-Atlanta, U.S.A.

1895  Spanish American War -          Cuba.

1910  Cuba Libre invented  -Habana,   Cuba.

1943  Lord Invader in Trinidad writes the calypso

        "RUM AND COCA-COLA".

1959  Cuban Revolution - Bacardi leaves Cuba.  

1966  "Bacardi and Coke" advertisment appears

       in Life Magazine May 20th.

So the Story goes.--And at the tender age of eight I was baptised to the delights and horrors of Rum and Coke, in Barbados, when I arrived home on a Sunday after noon, Drunk!.-- But that's another story!!.

ref:  "Family Spirits" The Bacardi Saga, by Peter Foster, 1990. Published by MacFarlane Walter & Ross Toronto, Canada. ISBN 0-921912-02-1.

"Rum,Yesterday and Today".

"The Spirit of the Bat", By Alejandro Benes,1999.

www.cigaraficionado.com/drinks/spirits  Also this site has four other good articals on rum. The Sister publication -Wine Enthusiast Magazine also has some Rum articals.

JOHN REEKIE   jr_rumsearching@hotmail.com

   

[JOHN REEKIE]

References not shown!.  I hate reading something, with a reference to other material, only to find that the actual reference was not included.-- The "Wine Enthusiast Magazine" connection is  www.winemag.com   Look for issues of --May 2000(5pages) and August 2001(8pages).

[PR Rum Time]

This is taken from Esquire Magazine

In the simplified form of Rum and Coca-Cola, this was one of the chief fuels that kept the home fires burning back during the Big One. It helped that there was practically nothing else to drink. By 1944, all American distillers of any size had for a couple of years been forking 100 percent of their production over to Uncle Sam, and domestic stocks were low, low, low. Caribbean rum was about the only import plentiful enough to make up for that (things got so bad they were even making gin out of sugarcane, not to mention vodka). The mixer situation wasn't much better. Sugar was rationed, which cut into the market-share of the Daiquiri and Collins and such, and ginger ale was scarce. Not Coca-Cola, though. It's good to be the king.

All the Andrews Sisters bobbysoxer jive aside (don't make us repeat it), the Cuba Libre was already enjoying a comfortable middle age. This wasn't its first war, or even its second. The drink was invented, it turns out, by a Doughboy (or whatever they were calling 'em) in Cuba, during the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. That was in 1900. "Cuba Libre!" was the rallying cry of the Cuban independence movement, a cause that was quite popular on this side of the Florida Straits. Sorta the "Free Tibet" of its day, only back then we felt obligated to back up our feel-good sloganeering with battleships and infantry divisions.

Of course, having gotten out from under Spain, it took Cuba another 60-odd years to get libre from the Yanquis. At which point, miffed, we slapped on an embargo which rendered it illegal to consume an authentic Cuba Libre in either of the countries that produce its two essential components. But in absolute point of fact, nobody has been able to drink a Cuba Libre in its full, original glory since about 1901, when the suits at Coca-Cola started getting nervous about their product's crank factor and began exploring ways to phase out its not-inconsiderable cocaine content. Hobbyists/drink archaeologists take note: we really can't endorse any attempts to create a historically correct Cuba Libre. Wish we could, but there you have it. But even without that key alkaloid, the drink is a potent little speedball that's way tastier than it has any right to be. Don't leave out the lime, though.

[Della]

I always thought that what made the drink a cubra libre was a lime squeeze added to the rum and coke.

As a side note, I have recently taken up with drinking Cap't Morgans and diet coke. I think it reminds me of my youth

[PR Rum Time]

I always thought that what made the drink a cubra libre was a lime squeeze added to the rum and coke.

You're right Della. Without the lime juice it's just a rum and Coke.

David