Post #254608 by Rattiki on Fri, Sep 15, 2006 8:08 AM

On 2006-08-09 11:02, Rum Numb Davey wrote:
Bacardi is a total anomaly as it is family owned and controlled, and the family are zealots at protecting their products position. I am not someone who bashes another for protecting their interests. How would you like some dictator to come snatch your company that you poured your blood, sweat, and tears into? The Bacardi's were historically wronged, and the rose above and created a super nova of a rum company.

Sure, Deussen produces slick ads for Bacardi in the vein of Bud, Coke, or Mickey D's. It is because all of us "sheeple" set around buying that crap. I may not, and perhaps you do not, but we are not in the vast millions who do everyday. You can buy authentic Havana Club in Mexico all day long. It is NOT cheap, as many falsely report as Mexican excise and tariff on import liquor is outrageous. It is about 20 US Dollars a bottle unaged in Mexican chains like Soriana. As far as authentic Cuban cigars, Mexico has become the BEST counterfeiter of Habanos in the World. The real deal is also very expensive, and all the border towns sell gullible gringos Mexican fake Cohibas all day long with fancy boxes and fake stamps. Usually dehumidified, and way overpriced for Mexican tobacco. Buyer beware! That being said, Havana is a great place to pay for fake Cohibas, as well.

Nice post :D

I was in the cigar biz for several years and got to know many of the Cuban expat cigar families, some quite well. These are very good people who work hard and care very much about what they make and why they are still making it. Some are true folk heros now in the cigar industry having rebuilt their lives and businesses sometimes with little more than a few kilos of seeds and sweat. They also know it is hard to compete with the products they once created in their homeland as Cuba's soil and micro climates create some of the finest tobacco in the world. One of the reasons for this is that Cuba is actually an island that came from the Pacific, AGAIN Cuba was once a PACIFIC ISLAND! So the soil is different than the rest of the Antilles. Does it also affect the way the rum tastes? Maybe.......I do know one thing though, it will be over their dead bodies that those communist SOBs will be allowed to sell the products made in their stolen Cuban factories (or farms) in the USA. So the day that you see TRUE Havana Club or a Cuban Partagas sold legally in the USA will be the day that those Cubans have been able to claim their properties back. (meanwhile the French can have it :P) That is why they are so brutal about it, as it is about more, much more than just business. :wink: :evil: :wink:

Oh yes and one more thing, the reason that the 'real deal' Cuban cigars and rum is so expensive is not just local taxes, it is the fact that the Castro Government KNOWS it has a unique, quality brand-name product that they know will bring them much needed hard currency so they sell it at a premium.......the capitalist hating, socialist revolutionaries that they are! :lol: :roll: :lol:

http://www.scotese.com/caribanim.htm

[ Edited by: Rattiki 2006-10-23 06:37 ]