When I arrived home from Europe I discovered the rum fairy had placed these bottles of Cuban rum in my suitcase, lo and behold. That would be the only explanation of how they got there.
Ron Añejo 9 Años is a very nice aged rum aged for nine years. This rum has a fruitier flavor profile and I thought it was pretty good, though I didn’t like it as much as Havana Club 7 which is more oaky.
Elixir de Cuba is actually a liqueur, something I didn’t notice until I tasted it. It is 34% ABV and definitely dosed with a ton of sugar, if that’s your thing.
It was only little bottles on this trip, thankfully, as we were basically borderline overweight on our two bags.
After a red-eye flight and connection through Frankfort, we finally arrived in Vienna where our tour of Christmas Markets starts on Monday. We explored the city a bit and landed back at our Imperial Riding School hotel for a nightcap before crashing.
For my first proper cocktail in Europe I had to go with a classic Daiquiri made with Havana Club 3 and it didn’t disappoint, crisp and limey. It was a really great drink and the Cuban rum never disappoints in this format, though being placed in a Martini glass rather than a coupe meant that I spilled it not once but twice. I hate Martini glasses! Though, in this case, sleep depravation may have played a part.
Mrs. Mai Tai went in a festive direction with a gingerbread Old Fashioned that was delightful, with some really great ice too. I wish my Daiquiri was served in that format.
I’d like to thank the customs agent who didn’t ask any questions and allowed me to bring this Havana Club 7 Cuban Rum back from Germany with ease. I brought back from 12 year old Santiago rum from Cuba last year but I like the overall flavor and body of the Havana Club 7 better, so I made sure to bring back this bottle before my current one is finished. The current bottle is almost gone, and I’m also not sure when I’ll be out of the country so I had to make sure I stocked up.
Some people seem to pooh-pooh these Havana Club rums as only being desired due to scarcity in the United States, but having tried a lot of rum the Havana Club 3 and Havana Club 7 do stack up quite well and are very nice for these lighter style of column-still rums. The HC3 does make a fabulous crisp daiquiri and the HC7 is a very nice sipping rum that’s perfect when you want great flavor but don’t want the rum to be overly assertive. Sometimes you don’t want cask strength spirits.
One bummer was that the HC3 in Germany was only 37.5% ABV, less than the 40% that I got last year in U.K. I’m all for having a little more HC3 but I do draw the line at rum less than 40%.
As part of the silent auction component of the Oakhana Summer Swizzle / two home tiki bar crawl in August, one of the auction items I contributed was a private tasting event with three Mai Tais for up to 8 people and hosted by Jeff Hall at the Dragon’s Den in the Oakland hills. Nav Singh was the high bidder and we had the event this past weekend.
What a great time, thanks to Nav and some of the Sacramento Ohana she brought along for the ride. A few quality questions about the Mai Tai’s ingredients and components and some about its key ingredient (that would be rum, folks). We also had a great vibe at Jeff’s place and some tasty food provided by Jeff. I brought the rum and the cocktail ingredients.
Auction winner Nav Singh
We had three Mai Tais:
First was a Trader Vic’s Mai Tai made with either Khukri rum from Nepal or Santiago aged rum from Cuba. One of these countries has a great reputation as a rum producer, but both are unusual and have a lighter column-still production method. Either one of these produced a fine Mai Tai.
Second was a Mai Tai made with Hampden Great House 2020, a cask strength flavor bomb from Jamaica. The difference between our first Mai Tai and this was greatly evident, and even with a super boozy rum the cocktail is still very approachable. This shows how different rums produce a very different Mai Tai.
We ended with a Blue Mai Tai, made with high quality Giffard Blue Curacao and a rum blend featuring Charley’s JB Overproof rum that’s available only in Jamaica. I’ve done different variants of this over the years and it still impresses; people expect it to be sweet like a Blue Hawaii but the boozy Jamaican rum gives it a good balance.
Thanks again to Jeff for hosting and to Nav for the winning bid.
Another Yellow Chartreuse cocktail, though when I looked up the recipe online it varied wildly. This one is basically the Smuggler’s Cove version and I chose to keep this with Cuban roots by using Havana Club 3 as the base rum.
I found this to be light and refreshing, though in the future I probably would up the Chartreuse a bit.
Daisy de Santiago 1 oz Seltzer 1 oz Lime Juice ¼ oz Demerara Syrup ½ oz Yellow Chartreuse 1½ oz Havana Club Rum Shake with crushed ice. Garnish with mint sprig.
No mint, but this was still very nice to drink. I think adding the seltzer before pouring the shaken contents is an improvement from the published recipe.
I picked up this bottle of Ron Santiago de Cuba in London since I wanted to see how a long-aged Cuban rum would compare to similarly aged rums from countries like Jamaica or Barbados for which I’m more familiar. Cuban rum (“Ron de Cuba”) is a lighter style made with column stills and unlike many Spanish-heritage distilleries there does not appear to be much in the way of added sugar in the finished product. The product is issued at 40% ABV and is quite dark in color.
Indeed Extra Añejo includes typical spicy barrel aging notes but those flavors do not overwhelm. The dry and lighter style means this is very easy to drink. While I find the taste pleasant, there is not a great deal of depth nor is there the lingering finish more common from pot still-based rums. As a point of comparison I find Havana Club 7 to have a richer taste with a longer finish including pleasant toffee notes.
I ordered Cuban Cocktails and while there are some nice things about it, there are some significant flaws. This 2016 book comes from the team behind the Death & Co. and the NYC Cuban bar Cienfuegos that closed a couple years ago. The book starts with a history of Cuba and cocktails from the country, including rum that is the key ingredient. Written in 2015 when the Obama administration eased travel restrictions, the book is a sad reminder of the subsequent travel restrictions that remain in place to do this day.
The book takes a chronological approach to the presentation of the recipes, starting the early punch recipes and then moving forward in time to daiquiris, tiki, and present day. While a number of historical recipes are included, there are also modern approaches to these style of cocktails.
The problem is that while many recipes name-check specific brands, none of those named brands are Cuban rum. Nor are there any suggestions for what kind of rums a US consumer should procure for these recipes. After pages of specific references to Appleton, Smith & Cross, Flor de Cana, and El Dorado the Daiquiri chapter only references “white rum” or “light rum.” This seems to be very curious omission, since Cuban rums aren’t available in the United States. And I doubt these craft cocktail bartenders are using the standard bearer for white rum, Bacardi Superior. The whole point of learning from professional bartenders is to learn what kind of ingredients they use so that the home bartender can elevate their game. There isn’t really any coverage of Cuban brands either, apart from photos that show the Havana Club logo on glassware and bottles.
