Old Cuban Cocktail Recipe
A Mojito grown up: aged rum, mint and lime shaken and topped with champagne.
- Category: New Era Drinks
- Glass: Coupe glass
- ABV: 16%
- Difficulty: Medium
- Prep time: ~4 min
Ingredients
- Aged rum45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Fresh lime juice20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Simple syrup20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Fresh mint leaves6 piece
- Angostura bitters2 dash
- Champagne60 ml (2 oz)
How to Make It
- Gently muddle the mint with lime juice and syrup in a shaker.
- Add rum, bitters and ice, then shake.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
- Top with champagne and garnish with mint.
Garnish
Mint sprig
What it tastes like
It smells of lemon and lime peel, mint leaves a cooling finish and it is carbonated.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
A stemmed, shallow coupe. The stem keeps your hand's warmth away from the drink, and the wide bowl carries the aroma to your nose. Served without ice.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Aged rum
- Aged rum. The barrel gives it a tannin and oak character close to whiskey's; it is smooth enough to drink neat, which is why the drinks built on it keep the ingredient list short.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Simple syrup
- One part sugar to one part water, stirred until it dissolves — no need to boil it. Keeps a month in the fridge. No syrup? Use the same amount of honey, loosened with a little water.
- Fresh mint leaves
- The stem is bitter, so use the leaves. One clap between your palms before it goes in releases the oils and gives you the aroma without bruising it.
- Angostura bitters
- The salt of the cocktail world. Measured in dashes, not millilitres: a few of them cut the sweetness and add spice. One bottle lasts years.
- Champagne
- Sparkling wine from the Champagne region. Cocktails call for brut; demi-sec noticeably sweetens the drink and makes the recipe's syrup redundant.
The Story
Audrey Saunders created it at Bemelmans Bar in New York in 2001; it is the drink most often credited with making champagne cocktails serious again.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Old Cuban mixed?
- It is shaken and served in a coupe.
- How strong is a Old Cuban?
- Roughly 16% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Old Cuban be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Old Cuban hard to make?
- Moderate. A shaker or mixing glass plus a strainer covers it.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.