One of the origin stories of El Presidente is that it was created by the American bartender Eddie Woelke who worked at the Jockey Club in Havanna during the Prohibition. He made it in honor of Mario García Menocal, president of Cuba from 1913 to 1921. It was originally made with equal parts rum, French vermouth and a bar spoon of grenadine. Legend has it that when president Gerardo Machado took over in 1925 he demanded his own version and so a bar spoon of Curaçao was added to the cocktail.

The glass was designed by Misa Tanaka in 2009 and is a combination of glass and ceramics.