Havana Club - Cuban - A+

In some parts of the world, this is simply one of the standards, and estadounidenses bringing Cuban rum back into their country from the rest of the Americas almost exclusively bring this. It's a one of the greatest, with a wonderful and sweet aroma, and a smooth flow. I've probably gone through at least seven bottles of dark HC in my life, and it never gets old. Havana Club has earned a number of Silver and Gold medals, and they're all deserving.

But all of the hoopla does set you up for disappointment, as hype always does, and indeed Havana Club is made different ways for different markets. The best bottles to my mind are safe at sale on the island, and I’ve had some relatively weaker bottles in other countries. But a great bottle of Havana Club is worth the wait, especially Reserva or anejos aged seven to fifteen years (the latter which I've only tasted once). HC also makes golden rums for flexible uses, and silvers for mixing, but whoever goes to the trouble to get the dark bottles should keep it neat or on the rocks for that sweet woodsy flavor. I've actually had the chance to taste almost all of their non-flavored bottles at tastings and from friends bringing it back, and they're all exceptional, so bringing back a bottle of gold rum is acceptable. So next time you head up to Canada for more affordable pharmaceuticals, don't forget to pick up a drug of a different sort to ease your pains (there are liquor stores near the northern border where you can pick it up most easily).

Corporate Hypocrisy

Bacardi has long tried to steal the brand name as a way to cut into Cuba’s revenues from HC. It’s a simple idea- as HC is a standard around the world, millions of consumers would make the mistake and accidentally purchase the Bacardi bottle. But this tactic is usually illegal, which is why there is Arby’s and Hardy’s, Coke and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Burger King, or Kaopectate and Peptobismol. It is basic intellectual property rights 101. And normally, Bacardi is as ideologically neo-liberal and capitalistic as corporations come (which is why they’re willing to finance bombings). But their commitment to free trade stops 93 miles from Florida, and this is another example besides the embargo. Make sure that the US doesn’t accept Cuban trademarks and patents, and create the decoy under the exact brand name. As an anti-capitalist, I shouldn’t be opposed to this in theory, but between the hypocrisy, the fact that it is only one of Bacardi’s tactics, and the fact that HC is made by a state-owned Cuban firm where workers have a far greater say than in almost any other in the rum industry, it isn’t unprincipled to call this tactic criminal.