FREEDOM FIGHTERS’ COCKTAILS… MIXING IN THE JUNGLE

Many juices and drinks were mixed during the Spanish colonial rule to freshen up during the unmerciful Cuban noon. Yet the genuine apogee of cocktails came to pass during the 19thcentury independence wars.

The hardships imposed by the war and the nitty-gritty life in the Cuban jungle unleashed inventiveness and improvisation at their best, with mambises (Cuban freedom fighters) coming up with mixes that sooner rather than later caught on in Cuba and overseas. Cocktails like canchánchara, frucanga, sambumbia or ponche mambí, just to name but a few, were either created or put on the map during that time.