LL
Joined: Aug 24, 2006
Posts: 788
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LL
This article echos BigBro's observation that American's fascination with Havana Club is more because it is 'tabu', and less because it is exceptionally fine.
Now You Can Legally Drink Cuban Rum—but Should You?
The writer samples 3 types of illicit Havana Club, from a bar owner's private storeroom. After remarks on each variety, he concludes:
"These rums are perfectly decent, but nothing to write home about. Unless you are writing a postcard from Varadero Beach. For the length of the embargo, the appeal of Havana Club was its exclusivity, its exotic aroma of a duty-free escapade, and the glamour of the desire for the forbidden—plus the tropical haze of myth traditionally adhering to anything remotely connected to Martha Gellhorn’s alcoholic first husband getting hammered at El Floridita. The bar owner is sad to see that era end, nostalgic for the fading of an amateur smuggling endeavor driven by nostalgia itself. Still, he agrees that Havana Club rums just aren’t great."
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