A friend of mine called me the other day and
asked if I knew anything about Ron Caney Rum from Cuba. I had to admit that I had heard about it from
my visit to Santiago de Cube, but I had never tasted it. My only exposure prior to now was at the Museo de Ron in Santiago de Cuba. It turns out to be an interesting rum with a
very interesting history.
Produced from molasses extracted from
sugarcane grown in the south of Cuba.
Ron Caney is bottled and aged in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Ron
Caney takes its name from the peculiar cone-shaped house, “El Caney”, built by
the indigenous Cubans.
Ron Caney contains all the tradition of
Ron Ligero, (light rum) a rum with years of ageing in white oak barrels, that
is said to be “the color of bottled
sunshine.” It is considered the best of
the Ron Ligero created by Facundo Bacardi in his distillery in Santiago de Cuba
in 1862 and was the first rum to undergo an ageing process.
With the coming of the Cuban revolution in
1959 and the nationalization of all the factories, including the distillery in Bacardi
decided to emigrate to the United States believing that the tradition “ronera”
in Cuba would cease without them.
But the story doesn’t go
like this. The distillery with all its barrels and, above all, the “maestros
Roneros” remained in Cuba, and three years later, in 1962, the brand Ron Caney
was officially born and has become “el ron de la Revolución.” (The Rum of the
Revolution) Ron Caney has been produced for 150 years , bottled and aged in the
same barrels and in the same distillery in Santiago de Cuba, thus continuing a
centuries-old tradition in always different social and political contexts.
The sugarcane grown in the land surrounding
Santiago de Cuba, holds the secrets to the production of rum, the history and
culture of the city of Santiago de Cuba, the “priceless knowledge of the
Roneros Maestros”, all add to the continued quality of the Ron Caney. The care and the unchanged old recipe and the
authentic tradition of the “Maestros Roneros” handed down over the years, have
brought Ron Caney to remain unchanged and unaware of the passing of time, it is
truly a one of a kind rum.
