Welcome to Cuban Rum: Now Go Home

Rum is not just for pirates. Rum has a history dating to the 1600s around the Caribbean including Cuba, and I’m sure some pirate somewhere was drinking rum and the image stuck. Yes, Captain Morgan was a real guy, but the cartoony image was created only in the 1940s. Anyhow, Cuba is no stranger to rum either, given their vast sugarcane plantings. So when in Havana, and on a budget, what to do? These rums are not sipping rums, they are average liquor store bought rums, simple but effective, flavorful and enticing in their own right. The rums here are all 375 ML and will pack easily into your suitcase (yes, please declare them) for your trip back to the States.

Havana Club Añejo Especial

Light and sweet, this rum is all caramel and butterscotch, cedar, roasted almonds, resin, campfire smoke, and toffee. This is a pretty basic rum, and not overly balanced. Fine for a mixer with a kick, it’s sweet and sugary. (40% ABV)

Havana Club Añejo Reserva

A more mature expression of the Especial, with more time in wood aging. Therefore the caramel and butterscotch notes - think Werther’s Originals – is richer. The nutty aspect begins to fade out and there are thick caramel notes, but over a short amount of time the toffee notes become more pronounced. (40% ABV)

Santiago de Cuba Añejo

A softer entry on the palette, there is mature honey suckle, resin, slight citrus notes as well as mild butterscotch and lemon zest. This offers a silkier viscosity, charred campfire wood, almost a subtle bitterness and certainly less sweet. (38% ABV)

Ron Cubay Añejo

More lithe and subtle, there is a maturity here, less of a mixer than the other rums listed. A potent brown sugar note is followed by burnt caramel and campfire smoke, English Toffee and toasted almonds. The best of the group as a stand alone rum to drink neat. (38% ABV)

Rum Running: The Bat from Cuba to Puerto Rico

Everyone knows Bacardi – the Cuban rum company, forced out of Cuba in the 1960, and now based in Puerto Rico, and their signature bat symbol. They are the world leader in rum, making a wide variety of iterations, from the basic white rum, all the way to their newest revelation, the Facundo line of aged sipping rums. They have been at rum making since 1862. These are the top tier of the Bacardi line and their master blender had over 200 blends to work with. 

The Facundo rums are highly allocated and prices range from $45 to $250, so you need to be a rum lover if you’re going to fork over that amount of cash. I had the great fortune to obtain these rums originally for a Father’s Day Gift Guide in The Hollywood Reporter (see that article here: THR) of which I wrote about the Exquisito. But all of these dark rums (the Facundo line also has a white rum called Neo) are wonderful in their own right and I highly recommend them.

Eximo - A 10 year aged smooth rum with a nutty quality,
mocha and toffee, sweet almond and a slight citrus back note.

Exquisito

A blend of rums aged from 7 to 23 year this medium bodied iteration is silky smooth with toasted almonds, sweet oak, a deep resin note and a playful bite.

Paraiso
After laying down for 23 years this is ready for sipping. There is sweet oak, molasses and brown sugar, almond and resin culminating in a silky and earthy rum.

Additionally, if you ever visit Puerto Rico , San Juan specifically, you can tour the Bacardi facility across the bay. The tour is a little theatrical in parts but it’s still worth the time to get a feel for the history of this company, sample some rum and enjoy the island. 

BACARDI 
FACUNDO 

A Rum Diary

I fell in love with rum when I visited Puerto Rico and blended my own rum at the Destileria Serrallés, which is, alas, not open to the public (yes it’s way cool!). The Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva Rum uses a blended 15 year recipe, which only means it’s really a blending of a bunch of different aged rums. That can work, and that cannot work, depending on the master blender and the final product. Matusalem makes a point of saying their rum was produced in Cuba originally, and who cares as it’s now made in the Dominican Republic. (Bacardi too was first made in Cuba, but now it’s Puerto Rico. And?). The point is this: should you spend your money on it? The nose is all caramel, toasted wood, maple and molasses and this is pretty smooth, with a slight burn, and you will get similar flavors in the mouth as what you smell. But I’ve had better, smoother, more complex rums for a similar price. It’s your money, you worked hard for it, so spend as you will. This is a good sipping rum, solid and dependable, but it’s not going to knock your dreadlocks off.

$30/750, Alc. 40%

BOOZEHOUNDZ RATING:  85 POINTS