Mojito local tropical ingredients: lime, sugarcane juice, and mint. Lime juice on its own would have significantly prevented scurvy and dysentery, and tafia/rum was soon added as it became widely available to the British (ca. 1650). Mint, lime and sugar were also helpful in hiding the harsh taste of this spirit. While this drink was not called a Mojito at this time, it was the original combination of these ingredients. Some historians contend that African slaves who worked in the Cuban sugar cane fields during the 19th century were instrumental in the cocktail's origin. Guarapo, the sugar cane juice often used
El Presidente (cocktail) El Presidente (cocktail) The El Presidente is a mix of rum, orange curaçao, dry vermouth, and grenadine. The El Presidente earned its acclaim in Havana, Cuba during the 1920s through the 1940s during the American Prohibition. It quickly became the preferred drink of the Cuban upper class. There are two rival stories of who the cocktail is named after. One is Gerardo Machado who was president 1925-1933. The other is Mario García Menocal who was president 1913-1921. Machado gave Pan American Airways (Pan Am) exclusive rights to fly the Florida-Havana route. This may be the reason that Pan Am served