Monday, October 22, 2018

Havana Club Develops a New ‘Professional’ Range Formulated Specifically for Bartenders


      Cuban rum maker, Havana Club has developed a new and experimental range exclusively with bartenders in mind.  The Havana Club Professional Edition range, which has also been developed in collaboration with bartenders, was first unveiled at trade show Bar Convent Berlin a couple of weeks ago.  The first bottling in the small-batch series, Havana Club Professional Edition A, is the result of a collaboration with the Cuban Bartender Association as part of celebrations for Havana bar El Floridita’s 200th anniversary.  The white rum is a blend of three aged rum bases and pure aguardiente that has been matured in large oak barrels for up to four years. It is filtered using an “innovative approach that retains the character yet still lightening the color and palate”. 
     Havana Club Professional Edition B has been created in collaboration with cocktail authority Nick Strangeway. The rum is a blend that includes one component finished in smoky Islay whisky casks, along with three other Havana Club 7 Year Old rum bases.  “Since the launch of Havana Club 7 Year Old 40 years ago, we have been committed to inspiring bartenders to create new rum cocktail experiences and the Professional Edition range is our latest expression of this,” said Nick Blacknell, global marketing director at Havana Club International.  “It was through the world’s best mixologists that rum drinkers were introduced to the Daiquiri, Cancha and Mojito cocktails – we hope that our new range provides the inspiration, through new flavor profiles in rum, for bartenders to craft the next generation of authentic Cuban rum cocktails.”
     Further editions will be added to the Havana Club Professional Edition range in the future, created using input from leading bartenders. These will be made exclusively available to mixologists in selected cocktail bars around the world.   Havana Club previously experimented with smoky whisky casks for the creation of its Havana Club Tributo 2018 expression.