Havana Club (Bacardi)

This redirect is about a rum made by Bacardi in Puerto Rico and sold in the United States only. For the Rum made in Cuba, see Havana Club.

Havana Club is a rum made by Bacardi in Puerto Rico, with the original recipe of José Arechabala, and sold in the United States.

History

Havana Club rum, was first created by José Arechabala in 1934 and sold throughout the world from his family-owned distillery in Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the distillery and company was nationalized by the Cuban government and the Arechabala family emigrated to the United States. The Arechabala family allowed the trademark to lapse in 1973.

In 1994 Bacardi entered into an alliance with the Arechabalas, and in 1997 the Arechabalas sold their residual rights to Havana Club to Bacardi, which, among other things, included the recipe for the original Havana Club rum.

During 1995 and 1996, Bacardi made a trial production of the rum in the Bahamas and was sold in the United States.

However, the Havana Club trademark was in the hands of Havana Club International (a business entity formed by the Cuban Government owners, and Pernod Ricard, the French owners of the Cuban Government brand) and owned the trademark in the United States through Inter-American Conventions.

After more than 10 years of legal struggles between the parties, on August 8, 2006, 5 days after the Cuban version of the trade mark was denied renewal in the United States, Bacardi released their own version of Havana Club (produced in Puerto Rico). As of July 2012 the trademark dispute had not been settled.

Awards

Havana Club offerings have performed well at spirit ratings competitions. For instance, at the 2014 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Havana Club Selecciones de Maestros won a double gold medal. In the Fall of 2014, ratings aggregator Proof66 placed the Selecciones de Maestros in the Top 99th percentile of all rums.

See also

• List of Puerto Rican rums