A pale yellow foamy cocktail in a rounded stemmed glass beside a fresh pineapple wedge on white marble against a pale yellow wall. — Havana Special with a thin foam in a stemmed cocktail glass, beside a wedge of pineapple.

Havana Special, Rum and Pineapple Juice from 1939

Name: Havana Special
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Caribbean
Ingredients: 1 1/2 fl oz white or gold rum; 1 1/2 fl oz pineapple juice, fresh if possible; 1 tsp superfine sugar; 1 cup cracked ice

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Equal parts Cuban rum and pineapple juice with a teaspoon of sugar, shaken well and strained into a cocktail glass: the Havana Special of the city’s Bar La Florida, printed in 1939.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 30, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 drink, about 4 fl oz
Prep: 5 min
Total: 5 min

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Havana Special with a thin foam in a stemmed cocktail glass, beside a wedge of pineapple.

The story behind the recipe

The Havana Special is half rum and half pineapple juice with a teaspoon of sugar, “muy batido,” shaken hard, and strained into a cocktail glass. Havana’s Bar La Florida printed it in 1939 in its bilingual booklet Floridita Cock-tails, and gave it the city’s name without a word of explanation.

Two ingredients and sugar

It is the plainest drink in the booklet’s run of house specials and the gentlest, about 16% ABV. Fresh pineapple juice foams when it is shaken, so the drink comes out pale yellow with a thin white head. The booklet gives no garnish: no wedge, no umbrella. Its neighbors include frozen daiquiris and a rum-and-vermouth Presidente, and the bar behind them is told in What Did Havana’s Cocktail King Pour in the 1930s?

Making it today

The booklet names Havana Club, a Cuban rum; any light Cuban-style rum works. Canned pineapple juice is fine but foams less than fresh.

HAVANA SPECIAL
½ Jugo piña. / ½ Havana Club. / 1 Cucharadita azúcar. / Muy batido con hielo menudo. / Sírvase colado.
½ Pineapple Juice. / ½ Havana Club. / 1 Teaspoonful Sugar. / Cracked ice. / Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Floridita Cock-tails (Havana: Bar La Florida, 1939)p. 36

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Ingredients

For 1 drink, about 4 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 drink, about 4 fl oz.

White or gold rum1 1/2 fl oz
Pineapple juice, fresh if possible1 1/2 fl oz
Superfine sugar1 tsp
Cracked ice1 cup

Ingredients as written here

1 1/2 fl oz white or gold rum
1 1/2 fl oz pineapple juice, fresh if possible
1 tsp superfine sugar
1 cup cracked ice

Equipment

Cocktail shaker and strainer
Small stemmed cocktail glass, about 5 fl oz

Instructions

Chill a small stemmed cocktail glass in the freezer or with ice water.
Put the superfine sugar and pineapple juice in a cocktail shaker and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the white or gold rum and the cracked ice, close the shaker and shake hard for about 15 seconds.
Empty the glass if it holds ice water, strain the drink into it and serve at once.

Nutrition

135calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 drink, about 4 fl oz

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof rum, pineapple juice and sugar, for one drink.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Keep rum and pineapple juice in equal parts, and shake no more than two at a time.

Notes

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

The booklet gives halves, not measures; 1 1/2 fl oz of each fills a small cocktail glass. Sweet ripe pineapple may need no sugar at all, so taste the juice first.

A Singapore paper printed the pineapple without the rum in 1915: Pineapple Cup with Rock Sugar, fresh juice with water, rock sugar and lemon.

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.