Top Five Cuban Cocktails

After returning from Cuba, Adrienne & Patience have shared their top five Cuban cocktails with us …

1. Daiquiri at El Floridita

In the bar where Hemmingway made the drink famous, sip a Daiquiri frappe and take a break from the culture vulture trail. This was the first bar to use a blender to crush the ice in their daiquiris and created one of the most refreshing drinks ever made. Despite the hordes of tourists also in search of refreshment, the ornate decoration inside the bar and restaurant is worth a look and frankly, it is the best Daquiri in Cuba.

2. Mary Pickford at Hotel Sevilla

The Hotel Sevilla has been welcoming guests in Havana Centro for over a hundred years, most famously Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and their mobster friends. The rooftop bar has views towards the Malecon and was built for barflies. One of these in the 1920s was the silent film star Mary Pickford, who was shooting a film in Cuba when the bartender at the Sevilla named this cocktail for her.

3. Havana Club at Havana Club Factory

Sadly they dont make Havana Club at this factory anymore, but the old place has now been turned into a museum, complete with tasting room (by far the best part of any museum). So you can have a glass of Cuba’s finest, with just a cube or two of ice, in its ancestral home.

4. Mojito at La Bodeguita Del Medio

The second most famous place to get a drink in Havana, and when the tourists hit probably the busiest! But if you go early on, before the coach parties arrive, you can get a feel for Hemingway’s old haunt in the backstreets of Old Havana. Mojitos for breakfast!

5. Cuba Libre at Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Havana’s most famous hotel (and a national monument) gives you the choice of bars in which to sup your ‘Free Cuba’. I recommend the garden, looking over the Malecon in the shadow of this historic place, where Frank Sinatra sang while Ava Gardner swam in the pool.

And as a bonus ….

Put de lime (and de rum) in de coconut

For this you shall need a gardner, preferably named Horatio, who can procure you a coconut from a nearby tree. Add in a generous slug of rum, some lime and a straw. BLISS!!

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