Leaning on the bar at El Floridita, a life-size bronze Ernest Hemingway awaits his Daiquiri, one of the drinks that flourished during Prohibition in the United States and made the hundred-year-old Cuban cocktail bar famous, which continues to conquer palates.
It was there that the famous North American writer met that cocktail, which resembles a snowflake but which reminded him of the freshness and foam of the sea.
Prohibition was in force in the United States between January 1920 and December 1933.
"It was a great boom for Cuba, because not being able to drink in the United States, (…) people began to come to Cuba" and Havana "it became the capital of cocktails"José Rafa Malén (70), president of the Cuban Bartenders Association and the only Cuban recognized in the International Bartenders Association Hall of Fame, told AFP.
Very close to El Floridita, Sloppy Joe’s Bar, founded in 1917, was a meeting place for half a century for other celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Nat King Cole and Errol Flynn.
– Comes out "the train" –
The cocktail in Cuba had several predecessors, among them the Drake, created by the famous British corsair Francis Drake (1540-96) during a brief stay in Cuba in 1586, when he lightened the brandy with macerated mint leaves.
Gin was the base of the first Cuban cocktails. The Tren, a mixture of gin, hot water and barley, is considered the first national cocktail, but it disappeared due to the use of ice, the other great promoter of Cuban cocktails, in a tropical climate.
That boom accelerated the creation in 1924 of the Cuban Bartenders Club, the first bartenders union in Latin America and the second in the world, which later became an association.
Another element is the acceptance of light rum, which from 1862 began to be distilled in several factories in Santiago de Cuba (southeast).
– "maragato" Y "Constant" –
The Spaniards emigrated "maragato" (Emilio Gonzalez) and "Constant" (Constantino Ribalaigua) are revered on the island for their great contributions to local cocktails.
Rafa mixes rum, lemon juice, sugar and an ice cube, beats them in a mixer and pours it into a triangular glass: it is the Natural Daiquiri.
Maragato brought it to Havana from Santiago de Cuba in 1922 and popularized it. Years later, Constante passed it through a blender and served it with frappe ice and a few drops of maraschino: it is the current daiquiri and the national cocktail.
The frozen ice "immortalized the Daiquiri, it was a very big novelty"Alejandro BolÃvar, 59, told AFP, 30 of them as a bartender, while preparing it at the El Floridita bar.
With the bar full -tourism returns after the pandemic-, the Italian couple of Elena Seioscolo (35) and Alessandro Spasa (43) taste it. "It was worth taking, very good, in fact I want to repeat it"she tells AFP.
Although they add up "hundreds" current cocktails, nothing prevents the creation of new ones. In 2003, the Cuban Sergio Serrano won the world cocktail championship with one that he named "Adam and Eve".
The Daiquirà leads the 11 classics: Mojito, Saoco, Presidente, Ron Collins, Havana Special, Isla de Pinos, Mary Pickford, Mulata, Cuba Libre and Canchánchara.
The well-known Cuba Libre (rum, ice, Coca-Cola and lemon) was born shortly after independence from the Spanish Crown (1902), when the North Americans introduced Coca-Cola.
– "The Great Room" –
The statue of Hemingway (1899-1961) is accompanied by the bust that the bartenders gave to "Dad" in 1954, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He drank standing up, just as he wrote, the special daiquiri that he asked Constante: without sugar, grapefruit juice, a touch of maraschino and double rum, BolÃvar explains.
Founded two centuries ago, El Floridita welcomed Constante as a waiter in 1914. Four years later he was its owner.
The Floridita "It is the classic bar, with a story, where thousands of people from all over the world have passed, it is one of the most classic bars in the world"says Rafael.
"Working in that bar is a source of pride for bartenders from all over Cuba, that’s why I call it the ‘great room’"he adds, as he brings a smoking cigar to the glass, he blows and makes a magical effect of smoke.