Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

South America

Havana Club

Photo by Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

During my travels to Cuba, I have enjoyed the Havana Club rum particularly in a mojito. During my first trip there I would have so many mojitos that I didn’t do very well on the photo tour portion. I literally had to go back the second time to get better photos. I now have a rule to only drink mojitos in Cuba. Many of my friends loved the aged versions of the dark rum.

The mojito originated in Havana and has routinely been presented as a favorite drink of author Ernest Hemingway. It has also often been said that Hemingway made the bar called La Bodeguita de Medio famous when he became one of its regulars and wrote “My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita” on a wall of the bar. Traditionally, a mojito is a cocktail that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, soda water, and mint.

As I was researching Havana Club rum this week, I came upon the family story, which I found very interesting below.

The Arechabala Family started their rum-making business in 1878 in Cuba and first registered the original HAVANA CLUB trademark in 1934. It wasn’t long before HAVANA CLUB Rum became a beloved and iconic Cuban brand – becoming a favorite amongst locals as well as American and European tourists.

Then everything changed. On January 1st, 1960, at gunpoint, the Cuban regime unrightfully seized the company’s assets without compensation. The Arechabala family lost everything and was forced to flee the homeland they loved, with a scant few of their remaining possessions – the precious HAVANA CLUB recipe being one of them. Meanwhile, the Cuban government started to sell their stolen version of HAVANA CLUB, and continues to do so to this day.

It wasn’t until 1995, More than three decades after the revolution, Ramon Arechabala made a deal with Juan Prado of Bacardi to produce the original-recipe Havana Club in Puerto Rico. Bacardi acquired the HAVANA CLUB brand and began producing rum based on the original HAVANA CLUB recipe and selling it in the one country that didn’t recognize the Cuban government’s 1960 illegal expropriation, the United States. HAVANA CLUB Rum has managed to hold onto its rich Cuban culture.

The family story has been adapted into “The Amparo Experience,” an immersive theater production written by Vanessa Garcia and staged by Victoria Collado last year showed Miami audiences the history of the family that created and distilled Havana Club Rum in Cuba.

Latest Articles

News

NCL’s Pride of America, sails weekly seven-day with roundtrip voyages from Honolulu, providing guests nearly 100 hours of port time and the ability to...

Interviews

Devon Allman and Donavon Frankenreiter are hoping to make history in 2023. The longtime friends will attempt to set the Official World Record for fastest time to play a...

Trending Travel

For all those Swifties who missed out on securing tickets for Taylor Swift’s groundbreaking Eras stadium tour in the U.S., there’s a chance to...

News

Virgin Hotels, the luxury lifestyle hotel brand by Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, today announced the opening of Virgin Hotels, the Group’s second European destination....

News

The Beaufort Hotel has landed top honors with USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards as “Best Boutique Hotel” in America. It’s the second year in a...

News

Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter is now open in downtown San Diego, marking the beloved brand’s first city-center location on the West CoastAfter a nearly...

You May Also Like

Interviews

The series “Departures” chronicled two Canadian friends Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach as they quit their day jobs to make their way around the...

North America

While covering MGK “Machine Gun Kelly” Day which took place on August 13 I visited the musician’s local coffee shop, 27 Club Coffee. It...

Interviews

Cincinnati-based chef Christian Gill has been taking on every challenge that the Food Network has to offer this summer. He is currently competing in...

Interviews

Ministry has paved a unique path for the past four decades, from its early days melding elements of dark wave, synth pop and metal...