User:Anistatia/Havana Club

Havana Club is a brand of authentic premium Cuban rum that is produced in Santa Cruz del Norte and San José de Las Lajas in Cuba. The brand was first produced in 1878, eight years after Spanish emigrant José Arechabala y Aldama established Destileria La Vizcaya in the port city of Cárdenas, Cuba. Havana Club has been produced since 1994 by Havana Club International S.A., a 50:50 joint venture that was established in November 1993 between the French firm Pernod Ricard and the Cuban company Cuba Ron S.A.

=History= Toward the end of Cuba's Ten Years' War that raged along the island's south-eastern rim, a new distillery was built in the northwest, in Cárdenas that launched a brand that today is internationally recognised as the most iconic brand of the Cuban rum category, Havana Club.

Destileria La Vizcaya
Born in the Basque region of Vizcaya (Biscay, in English) in northern Spain, 15-year-old José Arechabala y Aldama (1847-1923) left the town of Gordejuela, in 1862, to seek his fortune in the Spanish island colony of Cuba. Settling in the port city of Cárdenas with its ready supply of sugar cane and fast rail transport to rest of the island, it is no wonder that Arechabala chose this as the place, in 1870, to establish his Destileria La Vizcaya. At first, he was registered as an alcohol producer as well as a sugar refiner, and molasses producer. Records show that in 1878 he was distilling Ron Viejo Superior, an aguardiente de caña as well as a brand called Havana Club, which was only distributed locally within the region. Each bottle bore the mark of his hometown: the Gernikako Arbola (“Tree of Guernica”).

Destileria La Vizcaya grew so much by 1888 that although it sustained $50,000 USD (equivalent to $185,000 USD in today’s currency) in damages from Hurricane Four which swept over the island early that September, the company still had a profitable year.

Arechabala managed his enterprise until 1921, when the 77-year-old distiller incorporated the business under the name José Arechabala, S.A. and became the company’s President. His son-in-law, José Arechabala y Sainz, functioned as its Director until the elder Arechebala passed away on 15 March 1923, when he retained both the posts of President and Director. The corporation's leadership changed hands amongst family members two more times before the elder Arechabala's grandnephew and godson José Fermín Iturrioz y Llaguno (aka: "Josechu") was appointed Director, in 1926, and Tomás Pita y Alvarez was appointed as President.

Despite lower sales volumes due in large part to the enactment of Prohibition in the United States, Cuban distilleries thrived between 1928 and 1933 on their domestic sales. For example, in 1933, distilleries produced 29,037,370 litres of spirit and exported a mere 1,488,208 litres. José Arechabala S.A. had additional cause to celebrate when its Ron Arechabala Añejo, Ron Pitirre, and Caña Habana Añejo 1920 brands won Gold Medals at the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 in Spain.

There was a simple reason for this boom in trade: tourism from the United States had risen sharply. In the 1900s and 1910s the exotic beauty, vibrant sights and hypnotic rhythms of the  camparsa  groups that performed during Carnival in Havana lured thousands of American and European tourists to the island, exposing them to a wide array of Cuban rum drinks. That was only the beginning. Prohibition then drew hordes of parched American imbibers to Cuba’s shores. A quick flight from Miami or a fishing trip on the Gulf of Mexico brought many thirsty travellers to the haven of the Mojito, Daiquirí, El Presidente, and Cubanito.

Stateside publications fanned the flames of desire. The call for Cuban rum resounded in the cities. Floridita, Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Sloppy Joe’s and numerous other establishments hosted wave after wave of intellectuals, motion picture stars, entertainers, politicians and celebrities. Drinks were crafted by skilled cantineros such as Constantino Ribalaigua Vert (aka: Constante) and Maragato in honour of some of their most famous patrons such as motion picture stars Mary Pickford and Greta Garbo.

La Fabrica de Licores
Then the city of Cárdenas was decimated by Hurricane Eleven on 1 September 1933, killing over 30 people and injuring more than a hundred. The storm levelled the harbour’s piers and caused over $500,000 USD in damages (equivalent to $1,288,500 USD in today’s currency) to José Arechabala S.A. Undaunted, Josechu rebuilt the company the following year and constructed a second distillery, La Fabrica de Licores. Answering to the increased demand for rum, the company launched the Havana Club brand on a nationwide and international basis.

The end of Prohibition did not curtail the revelry in the capital’s Paseo del Prado, along the Malecón and throughout Old Havana. Casinos, nightclubs, and the vivacious spirit of the Cuban people continued to attract waves of American and European visitors, hoping to escape a global economic depression and the threat of another world war. More watering holes opened their doors.

Some establishments even served signature brands of rum. Sloppy Joe’s poured its own label, produced by Abeal y Garcia C.H. (later by García Rios y Cia C.H.). According to some sources, José Arechabala S.A. registered the Havana Club trademark in the United States, in 1935, although there is no record of this trademark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office's database. That year the company moved the Havana Club brand offices to the capital and opened the Havana Club Bar in the same building. Housed in the former home of the Count of Casa Bayona, located in the city’s Plaza de la Catedral, the establishment’s signature brand became very popular with locals and tourists.

The club is cited in British novelist and long-time Cubanophile Graham Greene's 1958 novel Our Man in Havana: “They had met at the Havana Club. At the Havana Club, which was not a club at all and was owned by Bacardi's rival, all rum-drinks were free, and this enabled Wormold to increase his savings, for naturally he continued to charge for the drinks in his expenses--the fact that the drinks were free would have been tedious, if not impossible, to explain to London. The bar was on the first floor of a seventeenth-century house and the windows faced the Cathedral where the body of Christopher Columbus had once lain.”

Songs were written and recorded about the delights of Cuban rum. The song “Rum and Coca Cola” was one of the most famous of the era, a chart-topping hit for both Xavier Cugat and The Andrews Sisters. Author Ernest Hemingway and his entourage of Hollywood luminaries including Spencer Tracy and Errol Flynn carried the message far and wide. The Cuban lifestyle and its rum flowed through the celebrities and travelled into the mainstream.

However, Cárdenas shallow harbour remained a stumbling block to José Arechabala S.A.’s import and export business. Josechu focused all of his attention from 1939 through 1944 on righting the problem. He invested all of his time, talent, equipment, and manpower to the job of dredging the harbour and constructing a jetty. It appears that during the construction of the new harbour and during a high point in Cuban rum sales both on the island and in the US, production of Havana Club rum was temporarily moved to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. But construction was not the primary reason for the move. It was an economic measure implemented not only by Havana Club but by Bacardí to that assure these brands could be sold in the United States without paying the heavy excise taxes that were imposed upon imported spirits. However, unlike Bacardi, José Arechabala S.A. returned its Havana Club distillation operations to Cuba after the end of the Second World War and the completion of the Cárdenas harbour project.

Fabríca de Levanduras de la Arechebala S.A.
Josechu's diversification scheme for José Arechabala S.A. was fully operational by 1950. Candy became the company's most lucrative enterprise thanks to a contract with the Charms Candy Company to manufacture products for American military combat rations during both World War II and the Korean War. Aside from producing candy and pioneering fuels manufactured from sugar by-products, José Arechabala S.A. continued to produce neutral spirits, the Cremas Arechabala line of liqueurs, Brandy Relicario, Vermouth Quirinal, Coñac Arechabala, a caña rum, and, of course, Havana Club. The company's import division supplied Cuba's hotels, bars, and burgeoning casinos with imported blended whiskeys, gin, and an array of Spanish table wines.

Then Carmelina Arechabala y Sainz was appointed President. Living in Spain since her husband's death in the 1920s, she continued to rely on 60-year-old Josechu to operate the family company. Neither she nor Josechu thought about ordering the renewal of the Havana Club trademarks that had been registered with the national and international rollouts of the brand, in 1935, in five countries, including Spain and the Dominican Republic. (In most countries, renewal applications must be filed once every ten years.) It is not certain if the company failed to renew because of an executive oversight or because more pressing financial problems stood in the way. The last correspondence pertaining to the Spanish trademark was dated 15 February 1950. At that point the Havana Club brand fell into the public domain.

Military leader and former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar returned to Cuba in 1952, after living in exile the United States for nearly eight years. Initially rising to power in 1933 as part of the "Revolt of the Sergeants" that overthrew President Gerardo Machado y Morales's government, Batista pressed his way to becoming Chief of Staff and then President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944. From the day of the overthrow, Bastista was in the pocket of American organised crime bosses. In his book Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba…and Then Lost It to the Revolution, author TJ English documented an interview with crime boss Meyer Lansky's right-hand man Joseph Stacher who recounted that in 1933: "We [Lansky and Stacher] gave Batista a guarantee of between $3 and $5 million a year, as long as we had a monopoly on the casinos at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba and everywhere else on the island where we thought tourists would come. On top of that he was promised a cut of our profits."

Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and Santo Trafficante already had established relationships with Cuban rum distilleries that dated back to their Prohibition-era rum and molasses smuggling days. By 1952, American organised crime owned Cuba's hospitality, gambling, racetrack, and entertainment industries in the same way American industrialists such as J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford had taken over the island's natural resources at the turn of the century. That same year, their man Batista was elected once again as the island nation's President, deposing Carlos Prío Socarrás.

Over the next seven years, demand for Cuban rum production went through the roof.

Arechabala Industries celebrated its 75th anniversary with the 1953 launch of Ron Extra-Añejo Arechabala 75, El Ron del Anniversario. Then on 28 April 1956, with aid from the Minister of Agriculture and other official government channels, the company announced the opening of Fabríca de Levanduras de la Arechabala S.A.

However, the complications of doing business—both with the government and organized crime bosses—worsened as did the political climate within the corporation. In 1957, Josechu was asked to stand down as Director and Treasurer of José Arechabala S.A. But there was a problem. Josechu had personally negotiated lines of credit with the City Bank of New York (now, Citigroup) to finance the company's operations. This valuable funding source was not transferable to a successor. The bank slashed the firm's financing margins from $600,000 pesos to $300,000 pesos and imposed harsher repayment terms. This single act ignited the rapid deterioration of José Arechabala S.A. over the ensuing months, ending with the bank's withdrawal of credit in December 1959 due to non-payment.

Fábrica de Ron Bocoy
The overthrow of the Bastista regime on 1 January 1959 by Fidel Castro changed the face of business across Cuba. American companies had owned the vast majority of Cuban businesses. Castro offered to buy them out with 20-year bonds. The offer was not taken accepted, and as diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba broke down and embargoes were enacted no further negotiations were arranged. Nationalization of Cuban businesses ended over a half century of foreign control. Additionally, Cuban-owned businesses that did not comply with new labour regulations and the nationalisation scheme, when it was put in place between 1966 and 1968, forfeited their holdings. Already bankrupted by the City Bank of New York (now Citigroup), José Arechabala S.A. closed its doors and the remaining family members emigrated to Spain.

The new government's Empresa Cubana Exportadora de Alimentos y Productos Varios (aka: Cubaexport) took over management of a few time-honoured Cuban rum brands: Matusalem, Ron Santiago, Varadero, Caribbean Club, Los Marinos Patricruzados, and Havana Club. In 1966, Cubaexport registered the Havana Club trademark in 80 countries, including Spain. Then it filed the trademark in the United States, on 12 June 1974, after the original registration expired in 1973. The mark was officially registered on 27 January 1976.

Rather than reopening the dilapidated Destileria La Vizcaya, Cubaexport converted the former mansion of Count Villaneuva into Fábrica de Ron Bocoy. Its two-tone pink façade, with the legend BOCOY above the door is mentioned in novelist James Michener's 1989 book Caribbean. Havana Club was produced there for a short period. Today, the facility manufactures Legendario Elixir de Cuba rums. Next, Havana Club was produced at Combinado de Bebidas de Santiago de Cuba, where Ron Caney and Ron Santiago were also distilled.

To meet potential demand, in 1970, Cubexport erected a state-of-the-art facility in Santa Cruz del Norte, near Havana, specifically designed for aged rum production. This is where Havana Club is produced today.

Distributed primarily in Spain and in Eastern Bloc nations (the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia - wasn't part of eastern block, read your history book before you write nonsense - it was nonaligned, and Albania) with whom the Cuban government had amicable relations, the reinstated Havana Club brand achieved some success as an export. But as in the past, its greatest asset was found in local distribution throughout Cuba. In the United States, authentic Cuban rum quickly reached cult status as trade embargoes enacted immediately following the 1959 Cuban revolution banned US citizens from purchasing or importing rum, cigars, tobacco, and other Cuban commodities.

With the fall of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, Cubaexport searched for new business partners to develop the Havana Club brand on an international scale.

Havana Club International SA
On 22 November 1993, a Convenio Asociativo was signed between two Cuban companies—Cuba Ron and Havana Rum & Liquors—and the French corporation Pernod-Ricard S.A. Thus, the joint venture, Havana Club International SA was born.

An immediate evolution of packaging and aggressive marketing changed the face of the Havana Club brand. Havana Club International SA unveiled its new image in July 1994, which combined both heritage and modernity in the employment of the brand's iconic symbol of La Giraldilla and a red sun.

Havana Club launched its Añejo Reserva, in 1997, which heralded a surge in international sales. From a base of just 444,000 9-litre cases in 1995, Havana Club burst onto the Impact Top 100 Premium Spirits Brands in 1998 with sales of one million 9-litre cases, the brand's first major international achievement.

The swell of interest prompted the launch of Havana Club Añejo Blanco and Havana Club Añejo Oro, in 2002, as well as new packaging for the range the following year. By 2004, the brand reached sales of two million 9-litre cases and entry into Impact’s Top 50 list. To supply more than 120 new global markets, Havana Club International S.A. constructed another facility in San José de Las Lajas, near Havana, which since its opening in 2007 has become one of the world's largest aged-rum distilleries and employs 500 workers.

Producing a large range of premium-and-above rums—all añejados (aged)—from white rums such as the prestigious Añejo 3 Años to Añejo Oro, Especial, Añejo 7 Años, Añejo 15 Años, and most recently Máximo Extra Añejo which is the most prestigious Cuban rum sold worldwide, the company broke another record, in 2009, with sales of 3.3 million 9-litre cases, earning it a number 23 Impact ranking.

Havana Club is 100% Cuban, produced in Cuba using only Cuban sugar cane. Crafted by roneros (master blenders) who have handed down from master to apprentice the traditional skills and techniques of cane selection, fermentation, distillation, filtration, and blending that are unique to Cuban rum.

Havana Club Rum is sold outside of Cuba. However the Havana Club brand legitimately produced by Havana Club International SA in Cuba is not sold in the United States, due to the United States embargo against Cuba. Bacardi recently began selling an unrelated rum also called Havana Club in the United States. However, it is not the authentic Cuban rum product. The Bacardi product, which is made in Puerto Rico, has been the subject of trademark violation litigation by Pernod Ricard.

=Close Roots with Cuban Cocktail Culture and Cuban Music= Havana Club Rum's roots in the heritage and tradition of Cuban cocktail culture have been firmly established since the 1930s, when the brand was launched nationwide and embraced by the bartending industry, especially in Cuba's capital, Havana. Since its emergence as an international cocktail destination during the 1920s, classic Cuban cocktails such as the Daiquirí, Mojito, and El Presidente have been appreciated on a global scale by bartenders and consumers alike, especially when made with authentic Cuban Rum.

Today, in famed Havana destinations such places as El Floridita (the legendary birthplace of the Daiquirí and the Hemingway Daiquirí) and La Bodeguita del Medio (best known for its version of the Mojito), classic Cuban cocktails are mixed with Havana Club rum as the feature ingredient.

Havana Club International Cocktail Grand Prix
In a show of support and respect for the mastery of the Cuban cantineros and their association, Havana Club International SA inaugurated the Havana Club International Cocktail Grand Prix, in 1996. The International Cocktail Grand Prix had historically been a point of pride for the illustrious bartender association during Havana's cocktail heydays of the 1930s and 1940s. The Havana Club International Cocktail Grand Prix now draws a global array of classic and flair bar talent, taking place once every two years.

Banda Havana Club
Fifty years after it closed, members of the former Buena Vista Social Club, including some who were in their eighties and nineties, along with Cuban musician Juan de Marcos Gonzalez and American guitarist Ry Cooder recorded an anthology of songs that had been performed at the historic club during its heyday. The album won a 1998 Grammy Award. A motion picture documentary of the occasion, Buena Vista Social Club, was filmed by German director Wim Wenders, who also produced, in 2002, Havana Club Rum's first German TV commercial. This landmark film won an Academy Award and the European Film Awards' honour for Best Documentary.

The revived international interest in Cuban music—from Son to Samba—paralleled growing interest in Cuban cocktails and Cuban rum. In 2002, Havana Club launched a breakthrough promotion in one of its strongest markets, Italy, with the formation of Banda Havana Club, a group of 12 young Cuban musicians and dancers who toured the Adriatic and Italian Rivieras.

El Museo del Ron Havana Club
Interest in Cuban rum's heritage inspired Havana Club International S.A. to establish, in 2000, the Havana Club Foundation and its El Museo del Ron Havana Club. Housed in a palatial 18th-century villa on Avenue del Puerto, not far from the Basilica Menor de San Francisco de Asis in Old Havana, the museum displays include recreations of a traditional Cuban rum distillery and a 1930s Havana bar. Entry is free for Cubans. There is a nominal admission of $5 CUC (approximately 5€) for foreign tourists. The museum attracts hordes of visitors, who are eager to learn about rum making and to taste authentic Cuban rum. In 2009, the museum welcomed its millionth visitor.

=The Havana Club Product Range= The Havana Club product range encompasses all segments of the rum category with a distinctive competitive asset: a subtle production method of ageing and blending known as the añejamiento. All Havana Club products are indeed aged rums, ranging from white or silver to gold to dark, hence each Havana Club product in an añejo (meaning, aged) rum.

The Havana Club portfolio includes: white rums Havana Club Añejo Blanco and premium Havana Club Añejo 3 Años; golden rum Havana Club Añejo Especial; dark rums Havana Club Añejo Reserva, super premium Havana Club Añejo 7 Años, and ultra-premium Selección de Maestros, Prestige Rum Havana Club Añejo 15 Años, Cuban rum’s great classic, and Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo, an exclusive and very rare blend of some of the oldest rums in Cuba, presented for the first time in 2005

Havana Club Añejo Blanco
Havana Club Añejo Blanco is the youngest of Havana Club's aged rums. It reflects Cuba's expertise at making light, white aged rums, using a process common to all Havana Club rums. A series of carefully balanced aguardientes are blended and aged in oak casks to create this young white rum. It is light and aromatic with mellow, sun-coloured tones and the fruity flavour of freshly pressed sugarcane.

Appearance: Havana Club Añejo Blanco is clear with light, sun-coloured tones brought about by the ageing process in white oak barrels.

Nose: Havana Club Añejo Blanco has a fresh, easy aroma, reminiscent of vanilla and cherry, with a hint of cocoa.

Palate: Havana Club Añejo Blanco has a balanced, subtle taste, both sweet and fruity.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Añejo Blanco is an ideal mixer for refreshing cocktails such as the traditional Cuban national cocktail, the Mojito.

Havana Club Añejo 3 Años
Havana Club Añejo 3 Años is the most prestigious of all white rums, imparting a touch of unparalleled class to all cocktails and mixed drinks. Havana Club Añejo 3 Años is the result of blending aged and aromatic aguardientes" with extra, light sugarcane distillates to produce a selection of young rums. This batch of rums is then allowed to rest in white oak barrels after which the Maestro Ronero'' (meaning, Master Blender) selects the best barrels and blends the final 3-year-old rum, which is again set to rest before it is filtered and bottled.

Appearance: Havana Club Añejo 3 Años has a pleasant "light straw" colour and is bright, clear and dense, thereby revealing its age.

Nose: Havana Club Añejo 3 Años has an intense nose with accents of vanilla, caramelised pears, banana, and hints of smoked oak.

Palate: A very pleasant palate, with smoky, vanilla and chocolate notes.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Añejo 3 Años is the ideal spirit for premium rum cocktails, such as the Cuban Daiquirí as served at the legendary Floridita in Havana. It is slightly drier than Añejo Blanco and can also be enjoyed neat or over ice by rum connoisseurs.

Havana Club Añejo 7 Años
Havana Club Añejo 7 Años is the epitome of Cuban rum. It is a legendary rum which reinforces Cuba's standing as the birthplace of the finest rums. Within the Havana Club range, Havana Club Añejo 7 Años embodies all of the distinctive flavours, richness and know-how for which Havana Club is renowned.

The unparalleled and acclaimed quality of Havana Club Añejo 7 Años is a tribute to the traditional Cuban rum-making process and knowledge. The lengthy and natural ageing process in white oak barrels infuses the rum with its powerful and complex flavours.

Havana Club Añejo 7 Años was awarded Gold medals in 1995 and 1997 by the Beverage Testing Institute's International Review of Spirits.

Appearance: Havana Club Añejo 7 Años has a dazzling and clear mahogany colour.

Nose: Havana Club Añejo 7 Años has an outstanding, exquisite bouquet with intense and complex notes of cocoa, vanilla, cedar, sweet tobacco and lush tropical fruits.

Palate: Havana Club Añejo 7 Años is a stylish and exceptionally rich rum. A voluptuous, silky entry leads to a balanced yet extraordinarily complex palate of vibrant and refined warm cocoa, vanilla, sugarcane, chestnut and caramelised tropical fruit flavours braced by firm, smooth oak and rich brown spice. Finish Intense but round and smooth, its complex aged notes combine with a crispness reminiscent of its sugarcane origins to give a rum that is the pride of the whole Cuban rum-making tradition.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Añejo 7 Años can be enjoyed neat, however the complexity of the aroma can be brought out by adding an ice cube, or by allowing it to breathe for a few minutes in the glass. Alternatively, it can be served in a truly indulgent Cuba Libre or in premium cocktails.

Havana Club Añejo Especial
Havana Club Añejo Especial is a premium golden rum made from blend of rums that are aged for up to five years in the Havana Club ageing cellars. As the name suggests, it is something special, a blend of old and young rums that results in a rich, warm gold-coloured spirit. Its character combines the lightness of white rums and the robust aroma of dark rums.

Appearance: Havana Club Añejo Especial has a bright, warm golden hue.

Nose: An intense aroma, reminiscent of sugarcane with slightly smoky accents and hints of honey, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Palate: Havana Club Añejo Especial is an intense rum with a round and persistent finish. However, it retains the characteristic lightness of all Havana Club rums.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Añejo Especial is a versatile golden rum that has won acclaim from leading bartenders across the world as the perfect base for classic Cuban cocktails such as the Cuba Libre. It may also be enjoyed straight or on the rocks.

Havana Club Añejo Reserva
Havana Club Añejo Reserva is a savoury and exceptionally smooth blend. It is a perfect example of the smoothness of Cuban blended rums, a true art perfected through the ages by the island's best Maestros Roneros (Master Blenders). Havana Club Añejo Reserva is a subtle blend of many aged rums that are specifically selected to combine a powerful taste with a light aroma.

Appearance: A warm and radiant amber.

Nose: Integrated aromas of pear and light tobacco introduce a more robust bouquet made of woody notes, as a result of the natural ageing.

Palate: Havana Club Añejo Reserva is a strongly flavoured rum and opens up complex, lasting aromas of cacao, coffee, tobacco, and spices. It is characterised by an exceptional roundness and smoothness.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Añejo Reserva can be enjoyed neat, a la roca (meaning, on the rocks), in an exceptional Cuba Libre or in premium cocktails.

Havana Club Selección de Maestros
In order to create Havana Club Selección de Maestros, the Maestros Roneros (meaning Master Blenders) gather together to select the finest aged rums that one-by-one have been placed aside for their truly exceptional quality.

Afterwards, these prestige, hand-picked rums are blended and aged once again in specially-selected barrels—each chosen for the powerful, aromatic potential of the wood—in which these rums will develop their character and intensity.

At the end of this final stage in the ageing process, the Maestros Roneros meet to select the rums that will compose the final blend, which is bottled straight from the barrel at 45% ABV. This unique finishing process—called the “Cuban Barrel Proof"—gives the rum its unequalled aromatic bouquet and an exceptional quality.

Already recognized as a high-quality, ultra-premium rum, Havana Club Selección de Maestros has been awarded Gold medals by three of the world's most influential spirits competitions: the San Francisco World Spirits Award, the Beverage Testing Institute's International Review of Spirits and the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

Appearance: Havana Club Selección de Maestros distinguishes itself with a warm amber hue and a deep red glow.

Nose: A light nose of toasted pecan and spice aromas that reveals its robust origins with tobacco aromas and the presence of woody character.

Palate: A round and buoyant entry leads to a complex, flavorful, full-bodied palate of cocoa, coffee, sweet tobacco and brown spices.

Finish: A pleasant smoky oak and spice finish blended with candied fruits, to give the experience a remarkable balance.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Selección de Maestros is best enjoyed by rum connoisseurs as a slow-sipping rum, neat or on the rocks.

Havana Club Añejo 15 Años
Havana Club Añejo 15 Años is produced by repeatedly blending and aging selected rums and "aguardientes" in old oak casks that add that delicate touch of tannin. This unique aging process liberates the aromas and flavour, imparting that extra smoothness that is the top mark of the highest quality rum.

Appearance: Bright, intense amber, vibrant... "glowing rum".

Nose: A long, lingering aroma that is smooth, refreshing and very fruity.

Palate: The first impression that goes from honey to dried plum. The second is of banana, pear as well as fresh and dried fig on an incredibly smooth and delicate oak base that masters the delicate accompanying acidity.

Finish: A fine and mature sugar cane aguardiente that refreshes the throat. A long-lasting flavor with hints of a chocolate-coated aged coconut.

Perfect serve: And the best way to showcase the magnificent effects of ageing is to serve it neat—as befits a great classic aged rum.

Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo
Emphasising its rightful position as the authentic Cuban rum, Havana Club International S.A. created Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo, a unique, prestige rum that is handcrafted from rare extra-aged rums by Maestro Ronero Don José Navarro. Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo is the culmination of this rum making craft. It is made by blending the finest and oldest rum reserves that have been left to age in Havana Club cellars in respect of the genuine tradition of Cuban rum-making.

As a prestige rum, Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo is bottled in an elegant crystal decanter, allowing its vibrant amber glow to shine through. For its graceful lines, the bottle's designer took inspiration from the architecture and decorative arts found throughout Havana, which are renowned for their elegance and attention to detail. Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo is the purest expression of this refinement. The etched image of La Giraldilla—symbol of the city of Havana—on the crystal stopper is a symbol that Havana Club proudly shares with the city of Havana.

Appearance: Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo displays an impressive deep dark amber glow, testimony to its long natural ageing.

Nose: Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo reveals an outstandingly rich, intense, persistent yet delicate aroma. It impresses with its unparalleled complexity, sign of graceful maturity; balanced notes of oak, smokiness, and subtle tones of fresh pear, coconut and dried fruit.

Palate: Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo is robust yet velvety smooth. It is both dry and sweet. Its woody palate imparts a silky opulence, a cascade of savours accented by dark chocolate, luscious dried fruits and a hint of vanilla.

Finish: Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo has a warm enduring finish, with irresistible spicy notes and uncommon persistence.

Perfect serve: Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo is best appreciated by rum connoisseurs as a slow sipping rum, to be savoured neat, preferably after dinner.

=Sello de Garantia= There is only one way to know that a bottle of Cuban rum is authentic. Look for the “Sello de Garantía”, the seal of authenticity issued by the Cuban government which must be affixed to each and every bottle that is exported. Besides demonstrating the pride with which these rums are made, this label assures consumers that the contents is a premium quality, genuine Cuban rum that is produced in Cuba, distilled from Cuban molasses, filtered and aged according to traditional Cuban methods. To protect its authenticity from copycat producers, Havana Club International S.A. adopted of use of the “Sello de Garantía”. Genuine Cuban cigars that are manufactured in Cuba employ a similar certification to guarantee that they are genuine.

=References=

=External links=
 * The Official Havana Club web site
 * Havana Cocteles web site
 * Havana Mojito web site Web site presenting recipes and information about authentic Cuban Mojitos.
 * Havana Culture web site Web site dedicated to contemporary Cuban music, performing arts, and culture

Category:Cuban cuisine Category:Economy of Havana Category:Rums Category:Pernod Ricard brands

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