Celebrate with a Mojito. Photo by Paul
Johnson | IST.

Did you say rum and coke, a.k.a. a Cuba Libre? If so, we’d like to recommend our favorite way to enjoy rum: in a Mojito!

The mojito, another Cuban cocktail, dates to 300 years before the advent of carbonated cola drinks (which happened in May, 1886).

According to Bacardi Rum, the drink can be traced to 1586, when Sir Francis Drake and his pirates unsuccessfully attempted to sack Havana for its gold. His associate, Richard Drake, was said to have invented a mojito-like cocktail known as El Draque that was made with aguardiente, a crude forerunner of rum, sugar, lime and mint. Around the mid-1800s, when the Bacardi Company was established, rum was substituted and the cocktail became known as a Mojito. The name comes from the African voodoo term mojo, to cast a small spell.

Celebrate August 16, National Rum Day, with a Mojito. Here’s the recipe.

• Find more drink recipes in our Cocktails & Spirits Section.