For the right to produce Havana Club rum, for the third decade there has been a real war between the two largest world alcohol producers – Pernod Ricard and Bacardi. The stakes are serious: in terms of sales, this drink, made in a Cuban enterprise (part of which belongs to Pernod Ricard), ranks fifth in the world. In 2015 alone, the French company sold 36 million liters of Havana Club rum. On the other hand, Bacardi’s Havana Club share of the US rum market is about 30%.
Historical reference. A native of Biscay, José Arechabala Aldama, was not yet 16 years old when he arrived in Cuba in 1863. Relatives helped the guy get a job as a clerk in a large BEA trading house. The young man was distinguished by remarkable abilities, and ten years later Julian Zulueta, Marquis de Alava, invited Arechabala to become his representative in the port city of Cardenas.
For a young man without money and connections, this was an unheard of luck. One of the richest and most powerful people on the island, the marquis owned extensive cane plantations and sugar mills. At that time, Cuban light rum gained popularity in Europe and America, produced using the technology developed by Facundo Bacardi. Zulueta, who had huge stocks of molasses, decided to build a distillery in Cardenas. Arechabala took up the construction, and then the establishment of the production of rum.
For five years, Don José managed the enterprises of the Zulueta. When the marquis died in 1878, Arechabala bought the distillery and several sugar factories in the vicinity of Cardenas from his heirs by installments. Don Jose named his company, registered on February 1, 1880, in honor of his distant homeland – La Vizcaya.
The company produced sugar, alcohol, rum, and subsequently the range expanded to include cognac and jams. Senor Arechabala installed gas lighting in Cardenas and built a theater. For this, the city recognized him as its honorary citizen.
Building a factory and warehouses too close to a port was both a logistical benefit and a climate hazard. Twice: in 1888 and in 1933, the hurricane completely destroyed all coastal buildings, causing significant damage to the company. However, both the founder of the company and his heirs remained loyal to Cardenas, each time restoring production in the same place.
In 1923, the company, which Don José shortly before his death transformed into Arechabala SA, was inherited by his children (two sons and three daughters). The new owners had as much entrepreneurial talent as their father, so the firm prospered by exporting its products to the US and Canada.
The date of birth of Havana Club rum is March 19, 1934. On this day, the Arechabala family opened a new distillery, built to replace the one destroyed by the hurricane. Although the trademark was completely new, Havana Club was the quintessence of all the experience accumulated by the company’s distillers over half a century. A year later, a bar was opened in the building of the Havana office of Arechabala SA, where one could taste branded rum.
Neither the economic crisis and the subsequent drop in sugar prices, nor the Second World War stopped the development of the company. During the war years, she made fuel from alcohol, providing them with 60% of the needs of the island. In 1958, Arechabala produced 6 million liters of spirits, almost twice as much as Bacardi.
But a revolution broke out, in 1959 all the property of the company was nationalized, and the Arechabala family left the island. The new government renamed the plant in Cardenas: it received the name of the revolutionary José Antonio Echeverría.
Until the 90s of the XX century, Cuban rum was exported mainly to the countries of the socialist camp: the US market was closed for it. However, in 1976, the government of the republic re-registered the Havana Club trademark for itself, since the term for its registration by the Arechabala family had expired.
In 1994, the French company Pernod Ricard entered into an agreement with Corporación Cuba Ron and acquired a 50% stake in the company that produces the famous rum. In the same year, the Arechabala family sold to Bacardi the legal rights to the Havana Club trademark and the original recipe for the drink. Bacardi arranged for its release in Puerto Rico.
Since then and until today, a series of litigation between the two giants of the alcohol industry has not stopped. The bodies of the WTO, the EU, the US Congress are involved in litigation.
Consumers from this war, it seems, only won. The Cuban version of rum is of perfect quality: this is strictly monitored by the main blender of the enterprise, “maestro ronero” Jose Navarro. The label of the drink bottle is decorated with a proud inscription: “El ron de Cuba” (Cuban rum). The label of a bottle of rum made at the Bacardi factory is somewhat more modest: the court ordered the company to indicate that the rum was produced in Puerto Rico. But it is made according to the original recipe created more than 80 years ago, which probably contained nuances known only to the Arechabala family.
The names of two women are inextricably linked with the history of Havana Club rum. One of them is on the label. This is Isabelle de Bobadilla, the only female ruler of Cuba in the history of the island.
Doña Isabel lived in the first half of the 1537th century. She was the daughter of the governor of Nicaragua and the wife of the famous conquistador Hernando de Soto, an associate of Pizarro. Contemporaries spoke of her as a very beautiful and educated lady. In XNUMX, Emperor Charles V appointed her husband governor of Cuba. But de Soto held this position for only two years, and then departed for North America, giving his wife the gubernatorial powers by official order.
For five years, from 1539 to 1544, Doña Isabel led the entire archipelago and even commanded a garrison. But every day she climbed the tower and peered at the horizon for a long time in the hope of seeing a white sail.
Meanwhile, de Soto explored the lands of Florida, discovered the Mississippi River, but in 1543 he died of a fever. The members of his expedition who reached Mexico said that their commander was looking for a source of eternal youth.
Only a year later the sad news reached Cuba. When a new governor arrived from Madrid in 1544, Doña Isabel handed over the affairs to him and returned to Spain. She fulfilled her duty to her husband, she had no reason to live. Two years later, the woman quietly faded away.
A hundred years have passed, and the story of the ruler of the island in the people’s memory has turned into a sad legend of love and fidelity. In the XNUMXth century, one of the governors of Cuba ordered to cast a brass statue of Señora de Bobadilla. The sculptor depicted her in a crown, with a palm branch – a symbol of peace and wisdom – in her right hand and with a cross of the knightly order of Calatrava – in her left (the grandfather of Doña Isabel was the commander of this order).
The statue was erected as a weather vane on the highest tower of the fortress of La Real Fuerza. The Cubans call this sculpture the Giraldilla (in honor of the Giralda tower in Seville), they consider it the patroness and protector of the island.
Another woman who is sure to be remembered when a bottle of Havana Club rum is on the table is Carmela Arechabala, or simply Carmelina, the daughter of the company’s founder. She was beautiful, witty, cheerful and carefree, had an exquisite taste, adored comfort and luxury. Her lifestyle made such an impression on contemporaries that for almost a hundred years the Cuban expression “to live like Carmelina” means “to ride like cheese in butter.”
Types of Roma Havana Club
Havana Club International SA and Pernod Ricard jointly produce the following Havana Club rums:
- Havana Club Añejo Blanco is a clear, colorless rum with a 40% alcohol content. The drink is made from alcohol aged in barrels for 18-24 months. The aroma of rum harmoniously combines notes of cocoa, vanilla and cherry. Taste – a bit sharp, but balanced, with a slight alcohol aftertaste;
- Havana Club Añejo 3 años is a light straw colored rum. The drink is aged for 3 years in white oak barrels. It has a sweet, vanilla-caramel aroma, in which undertones of pear, banana and burnt oak are guessed. The taste is chocolate-vanilla, with a hint of smoke. At the London competition The International Wine & Spirits Competition in 1996, the drink was awarded a silver medal;
- Havana Club Añejo Especial is a golden rum that is a blend of double aged rums (distillates are aged in new white oak barrels). The drink is fragrant with spices, flowers, vanilla and orange peel, the taste has hints of creamy caramel, cinnamon and tobacco;
- Havana Club Añejo Reserva is an amber-colored rum, a complex blend of distillates aged for many years. The drink smells of pear, tobacco and caramel, the taste is soft, with a warm caramel-tobacco aftertaste;
- Havana Club 7 años is a seven year old rum. The mahogany-colored drink has a vanilla-tobacco aroma. Taste – soft, with notes of vanilla, cocoa and tropical fruits;
- Havana Club Añejo 15 años – 15-year-old rum, rich amber color, exudes the aroma of fresh tropical fruits. The honey-prune taste opens up smoothly, enriched with halftones of banana, pear and turning into a long fruity aftertaste with delicate woody sourness;
- Havana Club Cuban Barrel Proof is a premium dark amber aged rum that was first released in 2004. The secret of the special taste of the drink is that it is first aged for several years in old barrels, and then it is poured into new ones. To the spicy-caramel aroma of rum, notes of oak, roasted pecan (nut) and sweet tobacco are mixed. Taste – caramel-coffee, with a hint of spices and tobacco. Rum leaves a long spicy-candied aftertaste, balanced by a light astringent bitterness of burnt oak. At the San Francisco World Spirits Awards in 2009, the drink was awarded a gold medal;
- Havana Club Selección de Maestros (“masters’ choice”) is an improved version of Cuban Barrel Proof rum. The most distinguished blenders of the enterprise, under the guidance of Senor Navarro, taste the rum of many years of aging and select the best. Then it is aged in other barrels with a specially selected aroma. The drink is bottled only after repeated tasting by the masters – “roneros”. At the World Spirits Competition, held in 2014 in San Francisco, this rum was awarded a double gold medal;
- Havana Club Unión is an aged rum of rich red-amber color. “Maestro ronero” Asbel Morales and the famous Havana sommelier Fernando Fernandez Milian created a recipe based on the Cuban tradition of Sobremesa (“above the table”). It lies in the fact that rum is served after dinner, when all men light cigars. The drink smells of coffee, coconut, citrus fruits, dried fruits and slightly – smoke. The taste reveals vanilla-chocolate tones with a touch of dried fruit. Aftertaste – long, warm;
- Havana Club Ritual Cubano is a reddish-amber rum with a very mild taste. Since 2012, the drink has been produced jointly by Havana Club International SA and Pernod Ricard Spain, especially for sale in Spain;
- Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo is a super-premium extra-old dark amber rum. In the aroma, tones of dried fruits, fresh pear and coconut harmonize with hints of oak wood and smoke. The taste is silky, with a hint of chocolate, vanilla and candied fruits. The aftertaste is warm and spicy. The release of this rum began in 2006. It is bottled in hand-crafted, numbered crystal decanters. The circulation of the drink is limited: 1000 bottles are produced per year;
- Havana Club Solera San Cristobal is a collection rum released in 1999 to mark the 480th anniversary of the foundation of the capital of Cuba (originally the city was called La Villa de San Cristobal de la Havana). The drink is sold only in Havana.
Fortress rum Havana Club Barrel Proof and Havana Club Selección de Maestros – 45%, the strength of other varieties of this brand of rum – 40%.
There are four versions of the low-alcohol Havana Club Loco cocktail with a strength of 5%: with lemon, pink grapefruit, mango and passion fruit flavors. Bacardi produces Havana Club Añejo Classico Puerto Rican Rum – a dark amber aged rum with a strength of 40%.