No one knows what unnamed genius first put those two flavors together, but we're pretty sure it happened in Cuba (this gives the Rum & Coke it's other name, a common toast on the island during and after the Spanish American War: the 'Cuba Libre'). It's got the sweetness, it's got the acidity, it's got the bubbles and the flavors just work. And seen through that lens, Rum & Coke has more in common with a Tom CollinsВ than a Vodka & Soda. Lemon juice, for comparison, has a pH of 2.25.

You don't think of Coke as particularly acidic because of the sugar and salt, but it's there: the pH of Coke is 2.37. You know what else is extremely sweet and extremely sour? Coca-Cola Classic.

That's why MargaritasВ and Pisco SoursВ work, and also why things like water or iced tea or even orange juice don't make very good mixers: the sweet-sour tension just isn't strong enough to distract from the ethanol burn. Sour cocktails in particular follow an easy template: A hugely sour ingredient (citrus juice) clashes against a hugely sweet ingredient (simple syrup), and their battle is so fierce that an 80+ proof spirit-usually defined by its volatile intensity-can just slide right by. To explain why rum and Coke are so great together, let's talk for a second about why cocktailsВ work. Read more Robb Report: The 25 Best Bourbons of the 21st Century (So Far) And because everyone's always making the category error of assigning moral, intellectual, or gendered value to one mixed drink or another, I often feel called upon to defend it. You like what you like.ДЄnyway, because I manage a fancy cocktail bar, people look at me sideways whenever I talk about RumВ & Cokes. There's no 'should' or 'shouldn't' in preference. I'd understand how a pleasure could be 'guilty' if that pleasure was, say, heroin, or if you enjoyed spending your weekends setting strangers on fire, but as long as it's not actively harming anyone, where is the guilt? There is an almost tautological absoluteness to taste whatever you enjoy, there's a reason you enjoy it, and that reason should render your enjoyment un-guilty. This article originally appeared on Robb Report.Дo guilty pleasures even exist? Is there such a thing?

Captin and coke