Bacardi Is to Bring Havana Club Rum Back to the U.S. - Tiki Drinks and Food

M mikehooker Grand Member (3 years) Austin Joined: Jul 17, 2014 Posts: 1211	M mikehooker Posted posted on Thu, Jul 21, 2016 3:44 PM Bumping this old thread as I didn't see it when I posed the question about Puerto Rican Havana Club over here (Thanks Swiz): http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=51530&forum=10&3 Strange this thread began a decade ago when Castro was getting ill and everyone assumed the embargo would soon be lifted, yet here we are nearing the end of the Obama administration where restrictions have been lax and we're still having to go to Canada, Mexico and elsewhere to get Cuban rum. I'm curious, when Bacardi launched their Havana Club branding after obtaining the US trademark, did the product ever make it outside of Florida where they initially planned to market it? I just recently started seeing the Blanco and Classico Puerto Rican-made Havana Club in Texas. Is this the same product they were talking about back then? JenTiki shared this very recent review of the Anejo Classico, making me think it was just released: http://www.drinkhacker.com/2016/07/10/review-havana-club-anejo-classico-puerto-rican-rum-bacardi/ So maybe they only launched the white rum before? Whatever the case, I'm assuming it wasn't a success being that it wasn't more widespread and is just now surfacing again, conveniently as Cuban travel is starting to open up. The newspaper reports on this thread state that the Havana Club being produced in Cuba since 1960 hasn't followed the Arechabala's family recipe and Ramon Arechabala says that the Havana Club that is produced by the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard is awful as far as he's concerned and not drinkable. And that the recipe they sold to Bacardi in the 90s is the original and therefore better. Obviously he had a vested interest in encouraging the sale of Bacardi's new product, but his point doesn't take into consideration the fact that the soil producing sugar cane in Puerto Rico differs from that of Cuba and other climatory conditions which assuredly contribute to the final taste. Presumably we'll never be able to taste Havana Club as it was made before the Castro take over. [ Edited by: mikehooker 2016-07-21 15:45 ]

Bumping this old thread as I didn't see it when I posed the question about Puerto Rican Havana Club over here (Thanks Swiz):

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=51530&forum=10&3

Strange this thread began a decade ago when Castro was getting ill and everyone assumed the embargo would soon be lifted, yet here we are nearing the end of the Obama administration where restrictions have been lax and we're still having to go to Canada, Mexico and elsewhere to get Cuban rum. I'm curious, when Bacardi launched their Havana Club branding after obtaining the US trademark, did the product ever make it outside of Florida where they initially planned to market it? I just recently started seeing the Blanco and Classico Puerto Rican-made Havana Club in Texas. Is this the same product they were talking about back then? JenTiki shared this very recent review of the Anejo Classico, making me think it was just released:

http://www.drinkhacker.com/2016/07/10/review-havana-club-anejo-classico-puerto-rican-rum-bacardi/

So maybe they only launched the white rum before? Whatever the case, I'm assuming it wasn't a success being that it wasn't more widespread and is just now surfacing again, conveniently as Cuban travel is starting to open up.

The newspaper reports on this thread state that the Havana Club being produced in Cuba since 1960 hasn't followed the Arechabala's family recipe and Ramon Arechabala says that the Havana Club that is produced by the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard is awful as far as he's concerned and not drinkable. And that the recipe they sold to Bacardi in the 90s is the original and therefore better. Obviously he had a vested interest in encouraging the sale of Bacardi's new product, but his point doesn't take into consideration the fact that the soil producing sugar cane in Puerto Rico differs from that of Cuba and other climatory conditions which assuredly contribute to the final taste. Presumably we'll never be able to taste Havana Club as it was made before the Castro take over.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2016-07-21 15:45 ]

Post #766486 by mikehooker on Thu, Jul 21, 2016 3:44 PM