The Tippling Point | You can take rum out of Cuba, but you can't take Cuba out of this rum

Bacardi distillery in Cuba (Image: Jerry E and Roy Klotz MD via Wikimedia Commons 3.0)

One thing is certain. You can't take away rum from Cuba or Cuba from rum. An essential part of the country's culture, history, geography, climate, and people, rum has established its roots deep in the island's soil.

Ever since the time colonizers found the Caribbean a perfect place to grow sugarcane on plantations with the help of slaves they brought in from Africa, Cuba has established itself as one of the primary sources of the kill-devil drink. The poor natives from the dark country drank it in the evenings to allay their intense pain. At some point in time, the dark drink found its way to Europe to win new and passionate customers.

In the 20th century, Bacardi and Havana Club were the most famous spirits from Cuba.

The former supported Fidel Castro when he stormed into power upsetting the Batista regime. But their honeymoon didn't last long. When Castro decided to nationalize all companies in the island country, the Bacardi family had no other way but to steal out of Cuba with their precious wares - the yeast cells - before the state troops rolled in. The very same fate fell on Havana Club too.

(Image: Tim Russmann/Unsplash)

It was in 1878 that the Arechabala family founded a distillery in Casdenas, Cuba. In 1934 they created the iconic rum - Havana Club, which soon found ardent customers both in Cuba and the United States. Just like Bacardi, Havana Club also ran into a rough patch when the Castro Government nationalized the company in 1960, almost "at gunpoint".

The family dispersed and left for Spain and the US. Curtains to their rum? Not so.

The state government had definite plans when they took over the company. They began producing their own Havana Club in 1972. Initially, Cuba focused its attention on selling this new and prestigious "national jewel" within the red bloc - the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. That was not enough.

Global marketing of Havana Club became hugely successful when Pernorn Ricard and Corporacion Cuba Ron joined their hands in 1993.

Meanwhile, in 1994, Bacardi plunged into the scene by making another 'Havana Club' from Catano, Peurto Rico, with the help of a few Arechebala family members who gave them the original recipe and the rights. Two companies producing rum with the same name and you can imagine what hell would soon break loose. Intense battles over trademarks began in courts in various countries.

Today Pernod Ricard's Havana Club is the fifth largest rum brand in the world selling millions of cases every year. In 2008, it found its way to get bottled in India, one of the largest rum markets in the world.

If you want to introduce yourself to the quintessential drink from Cuba, why not start it out with the best, the Havana Club 7! Matured in ex-bourbon barrels, this dark rum from which your mouth would ease out exotic Cuban flavours - aromatic tobacco, spices, sweet tropical fruits, vanilla - appeals to both the youth and the affluent.

This elite rum can be enjoyed neat or on the rocks. There are even aficionados who would see it as an unavoidable presence in their cocktails.