Post #733484 by Hurricane Hayward on Sat, Dec 20, 2014 1:09 AM

Is Cuban rum overly romanticized? Oh, for sure. And the stories in "Potions of the Caribbean" sure didn't squash that notion.

But if you break rum down by style, and consider just the Spanish/Cuban variation, it's certainly among the cream of the crop. Sure, some of the Dominican rums are fine substitutes (along with a few others), but it will certainly be a pleasure some day to have another option to all the drek from Puerto Rico.

I'm not a huge fan of this style. You can indeed find much more flavorful rums in Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, Martinique, et al. But as simple base cocktail spirits, the white and gold Spanish rums are crucial. So keeping it all in perspective, it's correct to not consider this blockbuster news. But I'm still quite happy at this turn of events.

Also, it's a bit more significant to those of us in South Florida, who some day may have a chance to hop down there for weekend jaunts to what we hope will be a revival of classic Cuban watering holes. But I'm sure that will be slow in coming, unfortunately.