Bodeguita del medio La Complaciente" in Empedrado Street, in the old Havana district. He renamed the place Casa Martínez. Angel Martínez sold typical Cuban products and, from time to time, served dinner to the regulars. But mainly, the people who were found at the Casa Martínez, were there to have a drink with their friends, and savor a brand new cocktail called Mojito, made with rum, mint, sugar, lemon and club soda. In 1949, the cook Silvia Torres aka “la china” prepared the food. Very quickly, the Casa Martínez became the centre of Havana’s cultural effervescence. Attracted by the bohemian charm of the
Rum Swizzle Rum Swizzles originated on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. American naturalist and writer Frederick Albion Ober noted in 1920 that the great drink of the Barbados ice houses was the swizzle, a combination of liquors, sugar, and ice whisked to a froth by a rapidly revolved "swizzle-stick" made from the stem of a native plant, perhaps "Quararibea turbinata" (the "swizzlestick tree") or an allspice bush. The etymology of the word "swizzle" is unknown, but it may derive from a similar beverage known as switchel. Rum Swizzles were the drink of choice at what was purportedly the world's first cocktail