How does one get what one cannot have...? - Tiki Drinks and Food

M mikehooker Grand Member (3 years) Austin Joined: Jul 17, 2014 Posts: 1211	M mikehooker Posted posted on Fri, Feb 14, 2020 4:27 PM Little off topic, but a trip to Havana is surprisingly inexpensive. I brought home, I think, 18 bottles of rum in my suitcases and got to explore a fantastic city with my wife for a week all for under $2000 with food, lodging, flights, etc. That's less than we spent going to Tiki Oasis! Granted, I'm not sure what trump has done to stifle the regulations that Obama put into place to make travel and commerce for personal use legal. So maybe that's no longer an option. A friend of mine had a cruise he had booked to Havana canceled a few months back. Maybe we can't (legally) go anymore? Also off topic, I don't know if the formula of Havana Club 3 has changed since we went, or if the export bottles have different juice, or if bottles I've gotten from England and Mexico somehow turned in transit, but the stuff I got in Havana was magic. The best "white" rum I'd had until Probitas recently came out. I had three bottles of HC3 from Havana that made many a fantastic daiquiri. Once I was down to my last bottle, I started slowing down to preserve it, but then a friend who goes to England every few months started bringing me Liters of HC3 back with him. So I plowed through that last bottle purchased in Cuba knowing I had a supply line but very sadly when I cracked open one from England, it was horribly disappointing. None of the light, floral, delightful notes. Just ethanol flavor. I opened three bottles from different trips he took. All were bad. I had to tell him to stop bringing them back. Then he went to Mexico and surprised me with a bottle from there. Also bad! So I don't know if HC3 is just bad now, or if the export stuff is a subpar product (I know it's the well rum for bars in most other countries and not highly regarded by many), or somehow the stuff my buddy was bringing back had some sort of reaction to travel. Has anyone tried a bottle recently?

Little off topic, but a trip to Havana is surprisingly inexpensive. I brought home, I think, 18 bottles of rum in my suitcases and got to explore a fantastic city with my wife for a week all for under $2000 with food, lodging, flights, etc. That's less than we spent going to Tiki Oasis! Granted, I'm not sure what trump has done to stifle the regulations that Obama put into place to make travel and commerce for personal use legal. So maybe that's no longer an option. A friend of mine had a cruise he had booked to Havana canceled a few months back. Maybe we can't (legally) go anymore?

Also off topic, I don't know if the formula of Havana Club 3 has changed since we went, or if the export bottles have different juice, or if bottles I've gotten from England and Mexico somehow turned in transit, but the stuff I got in Havana was magic. The best "white" rum I'd had until Probitas recently came out. I had three bottles of HC3 from Havana that made many a fantastic daiquiri. Once I was down to my last bottle, I started slowing down to preserve it, but then a friend who goes to England every few months started bringing me Liters of HC3 back with him. So I plowed through that last bottle purchased in Cuba knowing I had a supply line but very sadly when I cracked open one from England, it was horribly disappointing. None of the light, floral, delightful notes. Just ethanol flavor. I opened three bottles from different trips he took. All were bad. I had to tell him to stop bringing them back. Then he went to Mexico and surprised me with a bottle from there. Also bad! So I don't know if HC3 is just bad now, or if the export stuff is a subpar product (I know it's the well rum for bars in most other countries and not highly regarded by many), or somehow the stuff my buddy was bringing back had some sort of reaction to travel. Has anyone tried a bottle recently?

Post #800671 by mikehooker on Fri, Feb 14, 2020 4:27 PM