The Spirits #64: The Cuba Libre

~ The Real Thing ~ Freedom vs Freedom ~ Kalatazov’s Tracking Shot ~ Malagueña ~ Second-hand Time ~

~ THE CUBA LIBRE ~

50ml light rum
The juice of 1/2 a lime (~10ml)
Dash Angostura bitters
150ml Coca-Cola

Stir the first three ingredients in a tall glass filled with ice (squeeze in the lime and sink the shell, if you like). Top with Coke and continue to stir so it’s fully incorporated. Lime wheel garnish.

Some Cuba Libre notes:

1) Proper Coke please. We’re not animals.

2) The dash of Angostura is not canonical but provides a pleasing accent. A drop of absinthe is good too. And a dash of maraschino in one of these is heavenly, if your bent runs to Cherry Coke.

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🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here. 
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.

And you like The Spirits, do please forward this to all of your friends.

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EVERYBODY wants to be free. But freedom to; or freedom from? I mean: freedom to buy whatever you want when you want? Or the freedom from the crassness and volatility of the market economy? Freedom to buy Coca-Cola? Or freedom from the Coca-Cola company? I put this political conundrum in front of you merely as it has always amused me that the Cuba Libre (“Free Cuba”) - rum and Coca-Cola - is named after one of only two countries where it is impossible to buy Coca-Cola owing to the US Trade Embargo. The other being North Korea.

“Cuba Libre” was originally a cry in the Spanish-American War of Independence. The drink’s origin story is this: in 1900, a US Army Captain stationed in Havana, poured a tot of Bacardi and spritz of lime into his Coke and raised it aloft: “Por Cuba Libre!” Naturally, this yarn has been spun hard by both the Coca-Cola corporation and by Bacardi (which hasn’t been made on Cuba since the Revolution of 1953). The marketing men and women have ensured that the name has endured.

Is there a difference between a Cuba Libre and a plain rum and Coke? Well, the rum and Coke leaves a bit of room to manoeuvre, rum-wise, whereas the Cuba Libre ought to be made with light rum and have lime as an essential component. And as for the soda, well, is insisting on Coke and different from specifying Campari or Chartreuse? Pepsi really does feel wrong here… but not quite as wrong as Diet-Coke. Dr Pepper (my favourite) might be interesting though. And Coke now sells those fancy ‘Signature Mixers’ in Waitrose, which come in herbal, spicy, and a couple of other modes, which are tasty - but against the Warholian principles of Coke:

“You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

And here is one of the greatest shots in cinema:

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PLAYLIST

Cuba! This didn’t take too much thinking about.

THIS PLAYLIST UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EACH WEEK. The idea is, you download it and return to it each week in your Spotify. If there was an old song you’d like to hear again, you’ll find it RIGHT HERE in the ongoing archive of 2021 playlists.

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WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING

I wrote about about the Russian experience of the 1990s via Svetlana Alexievich’s Second-hand Time. (UnHerd)

And I also interviewed Conrad Khan, a nice young actor, for (ES Magazine)

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING

There are worse things happening in the world, but I find myself very saddened by the way that the great London restaurateur Jeremy King (the Wolseley, Delauney, Zédel, Colbert…) has been ousted from the empire he created. I interviewed him a few years back and he has been a hero of mine ever since. “Most restaurants these days are opened by investors who are trying to sell the restaurant on before they’ve even opened it,” he says. “A private-equity person will say, ‘Why are you spending £100 on a silver teapot when you could have a china one for £15?’ It’s the sad way of the world.” (Mr Porter)

I am writing a piece on Russian hip-hop dissidents and so have been spending an inordinate amount of time on (The Flow)

Margaritaville (New Yorker)

Much more… but I have run out of time.

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SHOPPING LIST

PLEASE NOTE, I am taking a week off next week. I will then return on Good Friday when you are advised to stock up with… brandy, orange liqueur, grenadine, cream and… egg.

🐣