Old Cuban Highball
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 13.7% ABV ∙
The Old Cuban Highball is a long, shaken rum cocktail — Caribbean aged rum, mint, lime, and sugar syrup topped with dry sparkling wine over ice. Bright and effervescent with a silky, chilled body, this pour finishes crisp and bubbly, its herbal lift lingering long after the last sip.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake the first 4 ingredients with ice: Fresh mint leaves 6 pcsCaribbean aged rum 40 mlLime juice 20 mlSugar syrup 10 ml
- Fine strain into the ice-filled glass
- Top with Dry sparkling wine
- Garnish with a mint sprig
Tips
- Fine-strain after shaking to catch the mint fragments, so the topped sparkling wine stays clear and fizzy.
- Pour the sparkling wine last and gently, tilting the glass slightly to preserve its carbonation.
- Pre-chill the glass before building so the ice doesn't melt fast against a warm surface and dilute the drink.
History
The Old Cuban Highball is a taller, lighter-format riff on Audrey Saunders' Old Cuban, built the same way but served long over ice in a highball glass rather than shaken and strained up into a coupe. One reference traces this particular highball adaptation to a 2017 recipe served at a bar in Hamburg, Germany, though that detail rests on a single account rather than wider corroboration.
Its direct parent, the Old Cuban, was created by Audrey Saunders in the early 2000s, developed while she worked at the New York bars Beacon and Tonic before she brought it to Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel in 2002 and later to her own Pegu Club. Saunders built it by topping a mint, lime, and sugar mix with aged rum and sparkling wine instead of soda water, and it is often described as a sparkling, minty take on the Daiquiri crossed with a Mojito. The Old Cuban Highball keeps that same rum, mint, lime, and sparkling-wine combination but stretches it into a longer, more dilute highball pour.
FAQ
What is in an Old Cuban cocktail?
Fresh mint, Caribbean aged rum, lime juice, and sugar syrup are shaken together, then topped with dry sparkling wine and garnished with a mint sprig. This build serves it as a highball over ice rather than up, which is why it is also called the Old Cuban Highball.
What is a Cuban highball?
It's the Old Cuban served long over ice in a highball glass instead of up in a coupe, shaken with mint and rum then topped with dry sparkling wine for a lighter, fizzier drink.
Which cocktail is also known as the Cuban highball?
The Old Cuban is the cocktail behind the Cuban highball name, since this build serves it long over ice in a highball glass instead of the classic up presentation in a coupe.
Is an Old Cuban similar to a Mojito?
Yes, both share mint, rum, and lime as their core, but the Old Cuban swaps the Mojito's soda water for dry sparkling wine and uses an aged rum instead of a light one. The result is a richer, wine-toned drink rather than the Mojito's crisp, herbaceous character.
What's the difference between a Mojito and an Old Cuban?
The main difference is the topper and the rum: a Mojito is built with soda water and light rum, while the Old Cuban Highball is shaken with Caribbean aged rum, mint, lime, and sugar syrup, then topped with dry sparkling wine. This gives the Old Cuban a deeper rum character and a wine-driven fizz instead of the Mojito's cleaner, soda-lifted finish.
