Tiki Central / Tiki Drinks and Food / Bacardi
Post #429998 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 8:48 AM
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Thu, Jan 22, 2009 8:48 AM
I don't think it is so much the "quality" of Bacardi, as the quality of their politics... "In this book, investigative journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina brings to light the commercial and political activities of the Bacardi empire to reveal its role in fostering the 40-year long confrontation between the United States and the revolutionary government of Cuba. Through meticulous research, Calvo Ospina reveals how directors and shareholders of the family-owned firm have aggressively worked to undermine the Castro government. He explores how they have been implicated in supporting paramilitary organizations that have carried out terrorists attacks, and reveals their links to the extreme right-wing Cuban-American Foundation that supported Ronald Regan's Contra war in Nicaragua. "Bacardi: The Hidden War" explains the company's hand in promoting "special interest" legislation against its competitor, Havana Club Rum, which is manufactured in Cuba and promoted by the European company Pernod-Ricard. Calvo Ospina reveals the implications of Bacardi's involvement in this growing dispute that threatens to create a trade war between America and Europe. Exploring the Bacardi empire's links to the CIA, as well as its inside links with the Bush administration, this fascinating and readable account shows how multinational companies act for political as well as economic interests." ...but that might not matter to mixologists as much as the taste --which is the polar opposite to that elixir of Polynesian pop, Demarara rum. Bacardi saw the changing of the tastes in the late 60s from more "rummy", rich tasting liquor to drier, less overt flavors. In the course of their successful campaign to make their brand THE rum that dominates supermarket shelves they have banned most of the smaller labels to specialty stores and diminished the variety of rum styles available out there. Now I am not denying that the PUBLIC is to blame for this also...but so it is to blame for the disappearance of Tiki style, and Bacardi's effect on the rum market parallels the very devolution of Tiki style. And so "Bacardi" is like saying "Jimmy Buffet" to a Tikiphile. This is not denying that it can play a roll in certain drinks, and that everybody is entitled to choose their booze. There is a recent book out on the history of the family and company that has a well-written, more balanced view of the story: |