Step aside, sangria, because the rebujito is here to steal the show.
If you have ever been to the Seville Fair or an Andalusian fiesta, you will know this minty-fresh mix is the locals’ drink of choice.
Even The New York Times crowned it “the best summer drink of all time” back in 2020.
Rebujito roots in Victorian England
Despite its Andalusian fame, the rebujito wasn’t born in Seville. Its roots are from Victorian England, where people were drinking a Sherry Cobbler. A sherry cobler is sherry with soda water, sugar and a slice of orange. Swap the soda and sugar for lemon-lime fizz, throw in a sprig of mint, and you have a rebujito.
Spain, of course, put its own twist on things.
One popular tale credits a group of Granada pharmacists in the 1980s. Legend has it, at the Corpus Christi Fair, they ran out of their usual drinks and were left with some iffy sherry. Not ones to waste good booze, they added a splash of 7-Up, crossed their fingers… and somehow created the hit of the party. From then on, the rebujito spread like wildfire across Andalusia’s festivals.
The word itself is linked to rebujo, an older Huelva mix of wine, sugar and fizzy water.
These days, the rebujito has official recognition too. In 2021, the Royal Spanish Academy finally added the word to its Dictionary of the Spanish Language. Until then, it lived in that strange limbo of words everyone uses but nobody in authority admits exists.
