L.A. Times Barbancourt cover story today

Today the L.A. Times print edition ran a front page story about Rhum Barbancourt, it's importance to Haiti (it's the number one export, and a staple of daily life) and how it weathered the earthquake:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-rum9-2010feb09,0,4799177.story

It says they lost about 1/3 of their vatted rum, putting them a bit behind in production, about 1/5th of their worked are homeless (with a couple fatalities) but they didn't lose a single bottle in their Port-au-Prince warehouse.

With the tragedy that happened, it seems difficult (and callous) to think in terms of rum. However, based on it's importance to Haiti's economy, I think we all could help stimulate things (in addition to Red Cross donations of course) by buying a few bottles of Five Star--now or when production is back up and running (not sure if there is a shortage at this point--though I do still have a bottle I bought just weeks before the quake).

Bevmo carries Rhum Barbancourt Five Star, so ya can't complain you won't be able to get it where ya live!

edited for spelling

[ Edited by: Haole'akamai 2010-02-09 11:15 ]

Try this link

Did my good deed for the day and bought some. My 2nd good deed will be to test it out at Nacho's bar tonight!

very interesting. And one of the comments is right:

There's a slight misstatement in this article. "Unlike white rum" should say "unlike most rum." Not all white rum is made with molasses, and not all molasses-based rum is white.
Most French islands make rhum using pressed cane juice as opposed to molasses, and Martinique even has the only AOC outside of France for their Rhum Agricole.

He's right. Except that Martinique is part of France. He should say, outside of Metropolitan France.