Cuba is considered by many as the Island of Rum and Cocktails. The combination of natural characteristics, from the cultivation of sugarcane, the excellence in its production, and the experience of 150 years, allows Cuba to produce very special rums today. After centuries of liquor history, farmers and producers also toast to the success of Guayabita del Pinar. This country experienced the mixture of liquors with fruit juices and other substances at the end of the 19th century, and adopted it forever. Bibliographic data indicates that the custom of enjoying these drinks began during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), although its development, almost 100 years later, was related to the emergence of the Artificial Ice Industry in the United States.
But the inhabitants of the island did not experience the mysterious alchemy until the end of the century, explained Julio César Menne, a member of the Association of Bartenders of Cuba, to Prensa Latina. In this regard, he recalls that cocktails found ideal conditions here to settle: tropical climate, a rich variety of fruits, and one of the best rums in the world. According to the specialist, the firstborns of this family were the Cuba Libre (a mix of rum, cola, and lime) and the Daiquiri (a mix of sugar, lime juice, white rum, and crushed ice).
Some assert that the Cuba Libre was born on the counter of the American Bar in Havana when, with the first American intervention in Cuba (1898), bottled cola drinks began to arrive. Immediately, cola and rum made a good mix and the Cuba Libre became popular, whose name derives from the cry for independence of the Cuban mambises and from the political moment when the island was considered free from the Spanish metropolis.
For his part, Menne states that the Daiquiri was created in the mines of the same name in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, although it was originally not shaken with crushed ice. This innovation, which gave the drink its current uniqueness, was created by a bartender at the Havana bar-restaurant El Floridita. During the first decades of the 20th century, bars, bartenders, and cocktails proliferated in Havana, which, by the 1920s, firmly established their reign in the largest of the Antilles, with the arrival of thirsty tourists and businessmen fleeing Prohibition. National fusions began acquiring names associated with famous characters, hotels, cabarets, and movie stars, such as the Hemingway Special, created for American writer Ernest Hemingway. The exquisiteness of the cocktail was appreciated by the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, who savored the drink in the internationally known Havana bar and masterfully described it in his novel Islands in the Gulf.
By the 1940s, the old bartenders witnessed the mastery and elegance of the creoles growing, who at that time created a new cocktail to refresh on the beaches and during the hot Cuban summers, the Mojito, which gained international acclaim from La Bodeguita del Medio. It is said that Hemingway used to enjoy his Mojitos among the graffiti of La Bodeguita, before heading to El Floridita, where he shared Daiquiris with personalities of the time such as the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, artists like Gary Cooper, Ava Gardner, and Marlene Dietrich, and the playwright Tennessee Williams, among others, states Menne.
Popular imagination has created other delicious mixes such as Saoco, a simple combination of rum and coconut water, rooted in the taste of those who inhabit the nation. For the interviewee, the Cuban cocktail is not a simple and routine mixture of ingredients, but a whole creation, a true art that requires, in addition to knowledge, love, and a delicate aesthetic sense. Considered by its followers as a liquor for special occasions, rum is a hallmark of quality and a very connected element to the identity of the socialist island. Distinctive hallmark of Cuban rum Rum is made from the process of pressing sugar cane to obtain the juice, which is boiled, clarified, and emptied into centrifuges to crystallize the sucrose. The process leaves molasses as a residue, which is later re-boiled, fermented, and distilled to create the highly sought-after beverage. According to experts, there are five main types of rum: white, gold label, dark, aged, and aromatic.
Generally, bottles display the name of the country where they were produced, as well as the alcohol content and their category. According to many lovers of this exquisite liquor, it could be said that Cuba is the birthplace of rum, which is now well-known around the globe. In this context, on February 22, Cuba denounced to the World Trade Organization (WTO) the ongoing violations by the United States of international law norms and principles. Cuban counselor Nancy Madrigal stated that Washington maintains “Section 211 of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1998,” despite the fact that 10 years ago the DSB ruled it incompatible with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Paris Convention. Madrigal explained that Section 211 undermines the rights of holders of Cuban trademarks and one of its purposes is to facilitate Bacardí's fraudulent and illegal sale of rum not produced in Cuba, under the name of Havana Club.
In Cuba, there is a combination of a set of natural characteristics, from the culture of sugar cane, the mastery of the rum production process, and all the experience accumulated over 150 years. This allows the island to produce rums with very particular characteristics, explains Juan González, vice president of Corporación Cuba Ron SA, to Prensa Latina. The sugar cane brought by Christopher Columbus to the Americas found fertile land and capable hands for its production in Cuba. In its beginnings, rum was appreciated by pirates and sailors of the 15th century, thanks to its healing properties, or so they believed, as they used it to combat ailments related to any unknown disease. It is said that the only relief the drink actually provided was the unconsciousness of the sick person and the amnesia of pain. Hence, sugar cane rum is fundamental to a large part of the drinks that are prepared and consumed worldwide today.
There is no problem between the size of the harvests and the production of rum, because it is made through the processing of molasses derived from sugar cane. The excellent fermentation and distillation processes to which we subject this byproduct yield a very high output, starting from the adequate and exact amounts of those honeys, said González in the year of the recovery of Habana Club, the leading brand that governs the behavior of the corporation's activity. González describes the brand "Santiago 12 years," presented at FIHAV XXVIII, as a jewel made for export to Europe. It is an excellent liqueur, originating in relatively very small and special warehouses. In 2009, the company experienced a slight decline in production, largely marked that year by the global economic crisis, which is why it was necessary to make significant investments in promotion and advertising.
The truth is that this was the only year in which no growth was recorded among the last 15 years, during which annual increases in production volumes were reported in double digits. According to Gonzáles, in 2010 the company reintegrated into the dynamic that has characterized it with the hope of globally selling more than four million boxes of nine liters from various beverage brands, especially Havana Club. They aimed to sell no less than three million boxes of this last brand abroad. In the opinion of the corporation's vice president, these are very good results, considering that the crisis affected the availability of some supplies in a timely manner, and this had consequences that limited production, especially in the first half of the year.
However, in the second, decisions were made and mechanisms were introduced to enhance the possibility of external financing for acquiring raw materials, as well as other measures that allowed for the stability of management. Cuba also exports rums through Tecnoazúcar, a company of the Ministry of Sugar, which markets services and by-products of agro-industry, including rums, spirits, and other beverages. Although some products slightly declined as a result of the crisis, the excellence of the most demanded rums was always maintained, thanks to their high quality. That is the work we must continue: to research and monitor the markets, and the marketing efforts, emphasizes the entrepreneur, for whom an important challenge is to refine and elevate distribution in those constantly growing rum markets.
Guayabita Festival:
After centuries of history in liquor production, growers and manufacturers of Guayabita del Pinar toast to the success of the drink made from the eponymous fruit, an exclusive formula from the Cuban province of Pinar del Río. Beneath the pine trees, the wild species Psidium salutare grows, named guayabita for its small size. As an almost fortuitous event, the fruit merged with alcohol and sugar, gifting us with the sought-after liquor aged in enormous cedar barrels. The arrival on the island of Lucio Garay, from the lands of Biscay, Spain, led to the establishment in 1892 of a facility for the artisanal production of the product, reserved by families for illustrious visitors. That aged industry has since produced two varieties (dry and sweet), which will make their way back into the foreign market.
Of international fame, the drink embraced the burgeoning tobacco cultivation at the dawn of the 16th century. Its origins are lost among the fields of what was then Vuelta Abajo, where the guajiros used to drink some invigorating beverage to stay in the furrows during the winter mornings. It was a way to "warm up" when the collection of the leaf soaked the clothes and the cold splashed the hands and the rest of the body. Endemic to western Cuba, Guayabita del pinar is now harvested in the mountains of this province. From the highlands of seven municipalities, the little fruits are sent directly to a century-old factory, the only one of its kind in the world. About thirty farmers, whose skill determines the future and prestige of this unique drink, collect the guayabita in the highlands, from where they travel directly to a century-old factory - the only one of its kind in the world - visited every day by Cuban and foreign travelers.
Last year, the sugarcane harvest began early and extended until September, when growers and industry workers celebrated the Guayabita festival, a traditional celebration to honor the best producers and toast to the success of the campaign. Viñales, a locality distinguished as a Cultural Landscape of Humanity, was the venue for the festivities, animated by the controversies of spontaneous poets and typical dances of the region. In the midst of the revelry, the farmers raised their glasses to wish long life to the 40-degree liquor, which is also sought after in nations in Europe and Asia, declared Ángel Suárez, director of the manufacturing facility where it has been produced for centuries. Source: Bolpress.com
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