Cuba Rum

Cuban rum is light, smooth and column-distilled, the original Spanish-heritage style, and its character comes from careful blending and ageing rather than a heavy distillate, which is why it shines in cocktails. Spain banned rum here for most of the 1700s to protect its brandy, so Cuba came late, then changed everything. In 1862 Facundo Bacardi started filtering his rum through charcoal and ageing it in American oak, inventing the clean, light style the whole Spanish-speaking world would copy. By 1902 the island had 57 distilleries, and in the cocktail age the Daiquiri and Mojito made Havana the bar of the world.

Today Cuban rum is made by the state: two companies, Cuba Ron and Tecnoazúcar, distil and own the brands and partner with foreign houses to sell abroad, Havana Club with Pernod Ricard, Santiago de Cuba with Diageo and the newer Eminente with Moët Hennessy. Havana Club is the everyday face, with the 3 and 7 Años as staples and the Havana Club 7 Años as the rum behind a thousand Mojitos. The newer ventures stand for bottles such as the Eminente Reserva 7 and the Santiago de Cuba 12. The regional styles split roughly into dry in the west, balanced in the centre and fruity in the east.

Under its geographical indication, Cuban rum must be made from 100 percent Cuban molasses, distilled only on column stills, aged at least two years in American oak and bottled at no more than 45 percent ABV. Within those rules the maestros roneros blend aromatic aguardiente with a near-neutral spirit, then re-age the result in old, neutral casks for gentle oxidation. Because the embargo blocks US barrels, those casks arrive second-hand via Scotland, Ireland or Canada.

Because of the United States trade embargo on Cuba, in place since 1962: no rum made in Cuba is sold on US shelves, and the Havana Club sold there is a separate product made by Bacardi, not the Cuban one. The embargo followed the 1959 revolution, after which the state seized every rum company, Bacardi, Matusalem and the Arechabalas behind Havana Club among them. The families who stayed lost everything. Rare aged Cuban rum, including bottlings from before 1962, is a collector's piece today.