ES / EN
- July 3, 2025 -
No Result
View All Result
OnCubaNews
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
OnCubaNews
ES / EN
Home Styles / Trends Technologies of Communication and Media

With Hemingway at Floridita

by
  • Charly Morales Valido
    Charly Morales Valido
June 30, 2013
in Technologies of Communication and Media
0
El Floridita

El Floridita

As he leans on the dark, 118-year-old bar, the bronze Hemingway seems to looking sardonically at all of the pilgrims who enter Floridita bar and restaurant, drawn by the mysticism of the legendary “Papa.” They come from all over the world on the Hemingway trail, and an aspiring writer might hope to find his or her muse in the cocktail immortalized by the immortal adventurer: the daiquiri.

From the corner where sculptor José Villa Soberón placed him to observe the locale, the bronze figure seems to blend in with all the other regulars. One of these days, his tormented soul will be reincarnated out of an irrepressible desire to once again order his version of the daiquiri: no sugar or lemon, a dash of grapefruit juice and a double shot of rum, the personal medicine of a diabetic who lived fearlessly….

Floridita had existed for more than a century by the time Ernest Hemingway’s romance with the place was born. Behind the bar, Constantino Ribalaigua was holding court on that day in 1928 when the novelist came in looking for a bathroom. After attending to his needs, Hemingway decided to beat the heat and wet his whistle on his first visit to Havana. Constantino served him a daiquiri and “Papa’s” life was never the same again…. He liked it so much that in his novel Islands in the Stream, he wrote that the Floridita cocktail “couldn’t be better, not even close, anywhere else in the world.”

It was founded in 1817 as La Piña de Plata, on the corner where Obispo street ends coming from the port, and was subsequently called La Florida and then Floridita. While it is known internationally as “the birthplace of the daiquiri,” the cocktail’s name actually refers to a beach called Daiquiri in Santiago de Cuba. However, Constantino deserves the credit for the daiquiri as God meant for it to be: to the mixture of sugar, lemon and rum, he added a few drops of maraschino and frappé ice.

The fact that Hemingway adopted Floridita as his “office” undoubtedly contributed to its fame, but it was the bar’s own merits that made it a favorite among Havana’s bohemians and visiting celebrities, like Ava Gardner. In 1953 Esquire magazine listed it among the seven most famous bars in the world, and today it is one of the 10 best literary bars. In fact, the tourism review website TripAdvisor recently awarded Floridita its Certificate of Excellence.

With two Habanosommelier world champions on its staff, Floridita’s workers are efficient and capable of holding forth on “marriages” and cocktails without any fear of the growing competition, especially in the private sector. On the contrary, contests like “The King of the Daiquiri” are opening their doors to the new generations of bartenders to defend a cocktail that, together with the mojito and the Cuba Libre, is a standard drink all over the world.

Related Posts

Reflection of a man in a glass. Screens of a city and buildings

Fleeing from the screens….

September 4, 2022
Photo by Desmond Boyle.

Private workers propose dialogue

December 19, 2017
Malecón de La Habana, Cuba. Photo: Desmond Boylan / AP.

It’s not with Marco Rubio, it’s with the Cuban government

November 24, 2017

June-July

August 16, 2017

Floridita serves 18 different daiquiris, and while every maestro has his or her secret, bartender Nicolay Mesa says the real trick is “making it a lot.” Like his fellow barmen, Nicolay mixes the ingredients almost by instinct and always has a steady hand. They know that they are being judged every day by their customers, by history, and by a certain person in bronze who knew how to do more than write. Hemingway knew how to drink, especially his daiquiri, and inevitably at Floridita.

  • Charly Morales Valido
    Charly Morales Valido
Previous Post

Renewable Energy Sources in Cuba (Infographic)

Next Post

Varadero: more than sand, sun and sea

Charly Morales Valido

Charly Morales Valido

Mientras los demás niños querían ser cosmonautas, médicos o peloteros, Charly soñaba con ser periodista. Ahora de “grande” quiere ser de todo menos eso, pero sospecho que es el maldito periodista que lleva en vena, que quiere saber de todo para de todo escribir… Se cree más honesto que objetivo: no cree en la objetividad, porque la objetividad tampoco cree en él.

Next Post

Varadero: more than sand, sun and sea

My discovery of Arsenio Rodríguez

Celebrating the Industriales’ 50th birthday… in Miami

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The conversation here is moderated according to OnCuba News discussion guidelines. Please read the Comment Policy before joining the discussion.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Read

  • The Enchanted Shrimp of the Cuban Dance

    3055 shares
    Share 1222 Tweet 764
  • Private sector and tourism in Cuba. Why not?

    10 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • CIA documents revealing attempts to assassinate Fidel and Raúl Castro declassified

    45 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • A sanctuary for jazz in Cuba: César López’s dream

    8 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • Heidy Sánchez after two months without hugging her daughter: “There’s nothing concrete to resolve the case”

    7 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2

Most Commented

  • Photo: Kaloian.

    Private sector and tourism in Cuba. Why not?

    10 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • About us
  • Work with OnCuba
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Moderation policy for comments
  • Contact us
  • Advertisement offers

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}