"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee.com is back for another round! The whole month of February, we're serving up intoxicatingly fun bars and club articles -- including guides, unique features, drink recipes and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!
If you read my "drink a day" entry for the Michelada, you've probably noticed that I like drinks (and food, for that matter) that remind me of a time and a place. The Santo Libre takes me back to a nine-day trip to the Dominican Republic in 2006.
All across Latin America, they call rum and Cokes "Cuba Libres," which I think has a fun, socialist ring to an otherwise mundane cocktail. And indeed, drinking Cuba Libres from Santo Domingo to Santiago to Sosua got a little boring, although sipping one while watching Dominican winter baseball couldn't have been better.
Anyway, rum is dirt cheap in the Dominican Republic, so we drank a lot of it. Halfway through the trip, we noticed some locals drinking Santo Libres: that is, rum and Sprite.
The drink is elegant in its simplicity. With a nice spiced rum, the lemon-lime soda makes the drink lighter, easier to drink and just a bit more festive. Or at least it felt festive after about five of these $1 drinks at the beach bar ...
It's not rocket science, but here's how to make it:
2 oz. of good rum
1/2 oz. of lime juice (optional)
Sprite
Pour lime juice into a highball glass over ice cubes. Add rum, fill with Sprite, stir and serve. Garnish with lime.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
