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Havana in a tall glass: white rum, mint, lime and soda — the most refreshing cocktail Cuba ever gave the world. Ingredients: Cuban-style white rum, fresh mint leaves, lime, sugar (or sugar syrup), soda water, lots of ice. Method: 1) Gently press the mint with sugar and lime juice in a highball glass — wake the leaves up, never shred them. 2) Add the rum and stir to dissolve the sugar. 3) Fill with ice, top with soda, and crown with a mint sprig. The experience: cool, green and sparkling — a sea breeze off the Malecón. History: the mojito's ancestry is often traced to “El Draque,” a 16th-century Havana mix of aguardiente, mint and lime; the modern rum version rose to fame in Havana's bars, above all La Bodeguita del Medio, and never left.

Rum and cola with a battle cry: the Cuba Libre is a toast to freedom that became one of the world's most-ordered drinks. Ingredients: Cuban-style rum (white or gold), cola, fresh lime, ice. Method: 1) Fill a tall glass with ice. 2) Pour in the rum and cola. 3) Squeeze in a generous wedge of lime — the lime is not optional; it is what separates a Cuba Libre from a plain rum and cola — and drop it in. The experience: caramel cola lifted by citrus and the clean snap of rum — simple, cold, endlessly drinkable. History: it was born in Havana around 1900, just after the Spanish-American War, when American cola met Cuban rum and an officer is said to have raised his glass to a free Cuba — “¡Por Cuba libre!” The name stuck to the drink forever.

The purest test of a bartender: rum, lime and sugar, shaken into an icy, electric balance — Cuba's elegant contribution to cocktail perfection. Ingredients: white rum, fresh lime juice, fine sugar or syrup, ice — nothing more. Method: 1) Shake all three hard with ice until the shaker frosts. 2) Strain into a chilled coupe. 3) For the frozen Hemingway-era style, blend with crushed ice into a fine snow. The experience: bright, bracing and silky — citrus and cane in perfect tension. History: the daiquirí is commonly credited to American mining engineer Jennings Cox, who mixed it near Daiquirí beach, Cuba, around 1898; Havana's El Floridita bar and its legendary cantinero Constantino Ribalaigua perfected it, and Ernest Hemingway made its frozen version famous.