A clear iced drink with a sprig of mint in a short heavy tumbler beside loose mint leaves on dark polished wood against a cream wall. — Ginebra compuesta over ice with a sprig of mint in a short heavy tumbler.

Ginebra Compuesta, Havana’s Mixed Gin with Mint and Curaçao, 1939

Name: Ginebra Compuesta
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Caribbean
Ingredients: 1 small sprig fresh mint; 1 dash Angostura bitters; 1 tsp superfine sugar; 1 tsp orange curaçao; 2 fl oz London dry gin; 4 ice cubes

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Gin with a sprig of mint, a dash of Angostura, a teaspoon each of sugar and curaçao, served unstrained: the ‘mixed gin’ Havana’s Bar La Florida traced to its corner tavern of 1819 and printed in 1939.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 30, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 short drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz before ice
Prep: 5 min
Total: 5 min

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Ginebra compuesta over ice with a sprig of mint in a short heavy tumbler.

The story behind the recipe

Ginebra compuesta, “mixed gin,” is gin sweetened with a teaspoon of sugar and one of curaçao, sharpened with a dash of Angostura, scented with a sprig of mint and served without straining. Havana’s Bar La Florida printed it near the end of its bilingual 1939 booklet, Floridita Cock-tails, and the same booklet opens with the name.

A drink from the corner

The booklet’s history says that in 1819 a tavern stood on the bar’s corner by the Monserrate gate, and that customers came for “the delicious and tasty ‘mixed gin’ or cherry Brandy”; the Spanish text has “la sabrosa ginebra compuesta.” That is the bar’s own story, written in 1939, and it doesn’t give the 1819 recipe, so this is the Floridita’s version of the drink, not the tavern’s. The bar and its booklet are told in What Did Havana’s Cocktail King Pour in the 1930s?

Making it today

It is close to a gin julep but drier and smaller, with only a sprig of mint and the orange of the curaçao. The booklet lists no ice, but “serve without straining” means the drink was poured with whatever it was mixed on; stirring it over a few cubes in a short tumbler is our reading. At about 33% ABV it is a strong drink, mostly gin. Its stirred Havana neighbor, built on rum and vermouth, is the Presidente.

GINEBRA COMPUESTA
1 Ramita hierba-buena. / 1 Gota Angostura. / 1 Cucharadita azúcar. / 1 Cucharadita Curacao. / 2 Onzas Ginebra Gordon. / Sírvase sin colar.
1 Littel twig of mint weed. / 1 Dash Angostura. / 1 Teesponful of sugar. / 1 Teesponful of sugar. / 2 Ounces Gordon Dry Gim. / Serve Without Straining.

Floridita Cock-tails (Havana: Bar La Florida, 1939)p. 76

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Ingredients

For 1 short drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz before ice. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 short drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz before ice.

Small sprig fresh mint1
Angostura bitters1 dash
Superfine sugar1 tsp
Orange curaçao1 tsp
London dry gin2 fl oz
Ice cubes4

Ingredients as written here

1 small sprig fresh mint
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 tsp superfine sugar
1 tsp orange curaçao
2 fl oz London dry gin
4 ice cubes

Equipment

Short heavy tumbler
Bar spoon

Instructions

Put the fresh mint, Angostura bitters, superfine sugar and orange curaçao in a short heavy tumbler and press the mint gently with a bar spoon.
Add the London dry gin and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the ice cubes and stir for about 15 seconds. Serve as it is, with the mint in the glass.

Nutrition

165calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 short drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz before ice

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof gin and sugar, and typical label values for curaçao, for one drink.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

This is one drink. Build each glass separately.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

The booklet’s English column prints the sugar line twice and leaves out the curaçao, a typesetter’s slip; this recipe follows the Spanish. The booklet names Gordon’s gin; any London dry gin works.

If it is the mint you are after, Mint Lemonade, the Soda Fountain Way pounds fresh leaves with lemon and sugar in the glass, with no gin.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.