Cuban Rum?

A friend of mine is going to Mexico and offered to bring me back a couple of bottles of Cuban Rum. Any suggestions on what to ask for?

Thanks, Mike

Your friend will probably only find Havana Club (in tourist areas anyway).

Havana Club is plenty good, even if that's all there is to be found. My brother and I used to drink it when he lived in Mexico.

I swear by Havana Club Barrel Proof. It should be available at most good duty frees.

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Daily News, Rum Reviews & Other Distractions

[ Edited by: Rum Connection 2008-12-03 19:23 ]

Havana Club makes at least a dozen products.

They vary wildly.

I see the 7-year in duty free shops all over the world.
Good stuff, worth picking up.

But...
If you friend can find the Anejo Reserva, is is a truly sublime rum, and is also SOMETIMES found in duty free shops.

I will have a lot more to say about Cuban rums very soon....

Never had any trouble finding the Anejo Reserva in Mexico around Cancun.

Thanks for the tips. I will give him a list and see what he comes back with. He goes on a regular basis, so let's see what he finds.

Thanks, Mike

I've tried several of them.
The 7 year is, by far, my favorite.

If you are into lighter rums I recommend HC Anejo Especial, which is an aromatic golden-amber blend. I am by no means an expert, but from my limited selection this is my favourite and the basis of a real, killer Cuba Libra.

It really doesn't matter which Havana Club you get, they're all excellent rums.

you can find bottles on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/HAVANA-CLUB-RUM-OLD-LABEL-BOTTLE-COLLECTIBLE-VERY-RARE_W0QQitemZ400009156109QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item400009156109&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Okay. This is what he brought back. A bottle of Ron Matusalem Gran Reserve ( not Cuban, but still nice) and a bottle of Havana Club Cuban Barrel Proof. I'm happy with his selections. He goes down on a regular basis (corporate pilot) and has offered to get more on his next trip. This should work out well and help me build a nice selection of harder to find premium rums for my home bar. Any suggestions of other brands I should ask for?

Thanks, Mike

The Barrel Proof is about as good as you're going to do.

Tried about a dozen Cuban rums in the past week, and there are some good ones, but the Barrel Proof is a notch or two above the rest (unless you can afford $150 for the Havana Club 15-year, or $1700 for the Havana Club Maximo!).

Veradero 7-year is not bad, and is cheaper than Havana Club 7-year. I spoke with someone at the Havana Club tour, and I confirmed that the Anejo Reserva is a 6-year. But I still like it better than their 7-year old, and it is generally half the price. The Gran Reserva is noticeably inferior; good for mixing only.

My very recent experience (um, I was in Havana yesterday!) is that HC rums are EVERYWHERE and all other brands are relatively scarce. Saw very few non-HC brands in Mexican duty free shops (or other shops), but a half-dozen or so non-HC brands in Havana airport duty-free.

Best rum selection at retail that I saw in all of Havana was, oddly, in the gift shop of a nightclub called Dos Gardenias in the Miramar area.

Bottom line is that if you want to have your freind keep muling in Cuban rums for you, get a few bottles each of Anejo Reserva, 7-year, and Barrel Proof, and you'll be well stocked.

On 2008-12-18 22:31, tikibars wrote:
The Barrel Proof is about as good as you're going to do.

Tried about a dozen Cuban rums in the past week, and there are some good ones, but the Barrel Proof is a notch or two above the rest (unless you can afford $150 for the Havana Club 15-year, or $1700 for the Havana Club Maximo!).

Veradero 7-year is not bad, and is cheaper than Havana Club 7-year. I spoke with someone at the Havana Club tour, and I confirmed that the Anejo Reserva is a 6-year. But I still like it better than their 7-year old, and it is generally half the price. The Gran Reserva is noticeably inferior; good for mixing only.

My very recent experience (um, I was in Havana yesterday!) is that HC rums are EVERYWHERE and all other brands are relatively scarce. Saw very few non-HC brands in Mexican duty free shops (or other shops), but a half-dozen or so non-HC brands in Havana airport duty-free.

Best rum selection at retail that I saw in all of Havana was, oddly, in the gift shop of a nightclub called Dos Gardenias in the Miramar area.

Bottom line is that if you want to have your freind keep muling in Cuban rums for you, get a few bottles each of Anejo Reserva, 7-year, and Barrel Proof, and you'll be well stocked.

Thanks. I will pass your suggestions on to him for his next trip.

Mike

I think I have a higher opinion of the Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva than tikibars... but putting that aside... it is easy to find in the United States so definitely have your friend skip over it on the next trip.

I love the RM Gran Reserva... but as you say you can get it here so I didn't mention it.

The New York Times, today, is reporting that Cuba has been removed from the list of nation states which sponsor terrorism.

I imagine that Cuban rums could soon re-appear in the US liquor market.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/us/us-removes-cuba-from-state-terrorism-list.html?_r=0

Adding to my last post --

I know there are a number of factors and issues to be addressed and resolved before trade opens up between the US and Cuba. But this is a step in that direction.

Also, just because a rum is Cuban, doesn't guarantee that it is a "good" rum. Rum aficionados will need to exercise caution and good discernment when buying Cuban rums.

It is interesting to note that the Havana Club brand currently has two "owners" and brands. Through Cuba, Pernod-Ricard produces the renamed "Havanista" brand. Bacardi produces the product with the original "Havana Club" brand for sale in the US market. Bacardi produces Havana Club rum in their Puerto Rico distillery, but I'm not quite sure at the moment where Pernod produces their Havanista. Their production may still come out of Cuba. It will be very interesting to see if, and how, these two brand names and their owners play this out in the future.

It's my understanding that Havanista is simply the name Havana Club will be marketed under in the U.S. if the embargo is lifted. I don't know if you can even get Bacardi's Havana Club in the U.S. anymore. I've never seen it on a liquor store shelf.

You can still buy Bacardi's Havana Club around me. But why would you? :)

Yes, I also think that if things remain as they are with trademarks in the US, Havanista is the name we would see in the US for the Cuban brand of Havana Club.

I don't recall seeing Bacardi's Havana Club here in the US on shelves, but I recall that they were supposed to be selling it here. As a Bacardi product, I wouldn't pay much attention to it, unless I heard otherwise here from folks on TC and at The Hukilau.

I have been receiving onesy-twosey bottles of the Cuban product from family and friends as they visited the islands of the Caribbean. Those are good friends to have.

I would think that the diplomacy needed to being Cuban goods into US stores is probably quite a long process (not to disappoint anyone) but I'd be interested to see how it develops.

The idea that Havana Club isn't actually produced in Cuba is an interesting thought - a quick google suggests their current stock is but it makes sense that could change if needed.

AceExplorer touches on something else I've wondered - how will Cuban rums compare to the rest of the world Spanish rums? When the allure of forbidden fruit is removed, will Havana Club et al actually come out on top?

On 2015-05-30 06:23, AdOrAdam wrote:
The idea that Havana Club isn't actually produced in Cuba is an interesting thought - a quick google suggests their current stock is but it makes sense that could change if needed.

Yes, anything can change. My understanding is that since the US trademark was allowed to be acquired by Bacardi, production has split to two companies, Bacardi and Pernod-Ricard. Bacardi makes theirs in Puerto Rico, and Pernod sells product which I understand is still made in Cuba, although I am not certain that all of the Pernod "Havanista" branded rums are entirely made in Cuba. (Profit motives could drive Pernod to make stuff elsewhere under the "Havanista" name, but Cuba would probably not allow that, just speculating on that...)

I find it very interesting that the Havana Club name was not (or could not be) used by Pernod, since the name has quite a history and reputation. However the US trademark decision may have made that necessary -- potential "world court" actions may have forced this to happen, bummer for Cuba and Pernod. I have forgotten how the Havanista name is used by Pernod and the Havana Club name is still used in Cuba, will have to look that up again. My guess (not having recently researched this) is that the Havana Club name is still used for domestic production in Cuba.

I would like to see more comments on this, I have not had the time to dig deeper into this.

Let's hope for the best with all this. If we normalize relations with Cuba, I'm really curious to see how that may impact the Bacardi ownership of the Havana Club name. I also agree with AdOrAdam that there will be a process of many months for US beverage control folks to re-introduce Cuban rums into the US.

Oh -- one more very interesting thing I forgot to mention -- I think the Bacardi folks WERE in the lineage of the producers of Havana Club before the whole Cuban nationalization of that industry occurred. When they fled Cuba, they left the production facilities and the brand behind but made every effort to destroy the yeasts on their way out. They took adequate amounts of the live yeasts out of the country and then started production elsewhere. I think a Google search would quickly yield some hits on this information. I recall there were very scant details on this, but there were some reports out there on the web...

I have been following this as well. Mainly as an interest in cigars. My stash is getting danger low. Everyone is tracking Havana Club, but what of other labels or is this pretty much it?