Bacardi Cola Recipe: The Easy Rum and Coke

Ingredients

1¼ oz white rum Bacardi Carta Blanca or another light rume.g. Bacardi · Havana Club · Plantation · Don Q · Flor de Caña
4 oz cola well chilled
1 wedge lime wedge squeezed in (optional)

Garnish: Lime wedge (optional) · Ice: Ice cubes

Method

Fill a highball glass to the top with ice cubes.
Pour in the rum.
Top up slowly with ice-cold cola.
Stir once gently and, if you like, squeeze in a lime wedge.

Watch it made

Bacardi Cola

Taste

Sweet, fizzy and mellow, with vanilla and caramel from the cola and a light sugarcane note from the rum. Easy going and moderate in strength.

History and origin

Bacardi was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862 by Facundo Bacardí Massó, and its light, filtered white rum became the model for the whole style. Rum and cola have been mixed together since cola reached the Caribbean at the start of the 20th century.

The best-known form of the pairing is the Cuba Libre, which adds fresh lime. One popular account places its birth in Havana around 1900, among American soldiers toasting a free Cuba, but the details of that story cannot be verified. In Germany the plain version is usually ordered by brand name as Bacardi Cola, a standard at parties, clubs and festivals, and a useful benchmark for how clean a white rum really tastes.

Bartender tips

Use plenty of ice: a full glass melts more slowly than a half-filled one and keeps the drink from going watery.
Pour the cola down a bar spoon or the side of the glass to keep more fizz.
A ratio of 1 part rum to 3 or 4 parts cola is the sweet spot; more cola makes it lighter, not better.

Variations

Cuba Libre: Squeeze half a lime into the glass and drop the shells in before adding rum and cola.
Dark rum and cola: Swap the white rum for a dark or spiced rum for a richer, more vanilla-heavy drink.