Cuban Havana Club Takes the Cap Off of 150 year Old Rum

HAVANA  April 21 (PL)   A Cuban 150 year old new rum was tasted at the meeting of gastronomic and tourist experts, called Bayamanaco or Balcon del Habano (Balcony of Habanos), organizers of the Havanan workshop said today. The meeting has been held since 2007 at Presidente Hotel in this capital, to taste beverages and analyze their relation to Habanos, the most sought-after Premium cigars in the world.
This weekend, said spokespeople, the new feature was an unusual tasting of a rum awarded in the United States in the 19th century, the matrix of which is still preserved by the rum factory in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. Havana Club International Company Ltd. marketing specialist Yunior Antonio Alcolea Godines said in that expert meeting that it was the first distillation of an extra-dry liquor by Bacardí, made in 1862.
With that sample, Facundo Bacardí Massó, founder of those rum stores, won the first place at an international spirits festival, held in Bufalo, the United States, in 1874. The expert said that it was possible to preserve such aguardiente (firewater) at the rum factory in Santiago de Cuba and despite its 150-year aging, it still keeps its freshness, aroma and smoothness. Such mixture was aged in oak barrels, but they stopped its production, because it originated too much sediment to bottle it, since the appropriate technology to eliminate it did not exist at the time. sgl/iom/pgh/rfc