Indigenous populations in the Caribbean used a form of alcohol or aguardiente made from fermented natural ingredients combined with lime, mint – all ingredients that go into a mojito – to cure certain diseases.
Ropa vieja, Cuba’s culinary classic, originated in ancient Judea around 500 BCE. Wait…what?! Read on.
Conservative Jewish law dictated that one cannot cook on the Sabbath. Therefore, cooks in ancient Judea would prepare the food the night before the Sabbath and slow cook it during the night so it would be ready to eat throughout the Sabbath to comply with Jewish laws.
Back then the guava bars were made with dark sugar. The wooden slabs used to construct the tracks were dipped in petroleum to seal them, giving them an almost black color, just like the guava bars.
The wooded railroad track boards were called timbers and as they resembled the dark guava slabs, the British started to refer to the Cuban snack as “bread with timber.” Over time the workers began to refer to the snack as “pan (bread) with timba,” in Spanish, pan con timba. The name stuck and is still in use today.
The legend is that a group of Cuban soldiers and members of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders were celebrating the end of the war together in an Old Havana bar.
One of the soldiers ordered the drink with a slice of lemon, a drink he had already tasted in other bars. He encouraged others to try it with the toast, “Viva Cuba Libre” and, at the risk of sounding cliche, the rest, as they say, is history.