I wanted to share our experiences of Cuban Rum in two parts. This blog will explore what we drank whilst in Cuba, whereas in Part 2 I will be sharing and reviewing the rum that we brought back to the UK…and showing where you can order it from.
After 9 hours sat on the plane I looked out of the window to see a beautiful Caribbean Island, it looked just like the photographs with vast green land mass, turquoise sea and clear sand beaches. We pulled up at our Hotel, the Blau Varadero. The hotel was huge and you could see it from such a distance whilst on the coach. The first thing that excited me about this country was the cars, I looked in the car park of the hotel and it was full of 50’s American cars. Now I know that the cars are an iconic image of Cuba, however I did not expect that every single car would keep within that image. They were all different bright colours and worlds away from any car park in the UK.
The Blau Varadero housed 4 bars: the pool bar (where the staff gave you a funny look if you did not have rum in your drink….even at 11am), the beach bar (perfect for a cold beer whilst looking out at the ocean), the piano bar (where we had our last drink of the night listening to the bar staff sing opera) and finally the main hotel bar. I really hope that the above image does this bar justice as it was unbelievable, there is no where in the UK that I could compare this to…if it was in Leeds City Center then the drinks would be very expensive.
On having our first cocktails we decided that we would try everything on the menu. I am only going to talk about our favourites otherwise this blog would go on forever.
First of all is the Blau Varadero (you guessed it, named after the hotel). This cocktail was perfect for any time of day, however we preferred drinking this during the afternoon whilst sat on the beach. The base of this drink was the hotels Pina Colada mix, available all day from Slush Puppy machines. To the Pina Colada mix they added rum and a very large measure of banana liquor. It was both sweet and refreshing. 8/10
Our trip to the Blau was full of mixing drinks, we would begin the day by drinking Cristal (the local lager in Cuba). We then moved onto pool & beach cocktails which were all rum based, before moving onto wine in the evening and ending the night with more cocktails. The most popular cocktail in Cuba is the Cuba Libre, which is rum and coke for us brits…this is served with a very large measure of rum with a squeeze of lime juice…I wont go into much detail as we have all had this drink in the UK.
The second Cuban cocktail that I wanted to share with you is the Canchanchara…I must have ordered this twice a day once I discovered it, it was amazing and if you ever see this on a cocktail menu in the UK then tweet me where I can get one. I am still amazed how I managed to order this drink as to this day I can not pronounce this. This drink was made up of three ingredients: lime juice, a double measure of white rum and a spoon of honey. The bar staff shook this all up and then poured it into a whisky glass filled with ice. It really had a kick to it, which you can imagine considering it was pretty much just rum! If you are like me and have a sweet tooth then this is for you. Whilst in Cuba I drank a Canchanchara late in the evenings whilst Liz drank Margaritas. In Cuba they used their generic white rum, but if you ever want to make this cocktail for yourself then I would recommend Havana Club Anejo 3 Anos. 10/10 !!!
The excursions that we did in Varadero were amazing, this included a dolphin show and a Catamaran trip to a private island for sea, sun, BBQ & rum!
The best day trip that we took was called ‘Havana Club & Cigars’…this trip is essentially what it says on the tin. We spent the day exploring, drinking rum and smoking cuban cigars. We took a coach into the beautiful city of Havana, we started at the Havana Club Museum where we learnt about the history of rum making on the Island and the history of the brand itself…which was perfect for me as Havana Club is my favourite rum brand. In the museum we started with a rum and fresh orange juice (which is a great change if you don’t fancy coke!). We learnt about the history and all the different rum on offer from Havana Club, including a sneaky shot of their 7 year dark rum!
Following the museum we had a walking tour of the historic town which ended with drinking Daiquiri’s at the famous El Floridita bar…who claim to have invented the cocktail.
Whilst on our walking tour we stopped off at the Hotel Ambos Mundos. Located in the center of the old town this hotel was made famous as the hotel favourited by American author Ernest Hemmingway, before he took up residency in Havana. I really can not explain how hot it was whilst walking through Havana, by the time we reached the Ambos Mundos we were ready for a drink.
This leads me to the final drink that I wanted to talk about… The Mojito.
Lets face it, the Mojito is THE most famous rum based cocktail in the world. We did drink these in the hotel, but they did not match the quality of the drink in the Ambos Mundos. To make a Mojito you take a high ball glass, add sugar lime juice and mint sprigs. You muddle this before adding sparkling water and a large measure of white rum. This drink is refreshing mainly due to the mint and is very drinkable, even with a large measure the alcohol is not too over powering. In the UK a decent Mojito would cost at least £6 (in Leeds anyway). However in the center of Havana we spent 6 Cuban Pesos on two of these drinks…which is about £2 a drink. 8/10
If you go are planning a trip to the Caribbean then you should give Cuba a try, you will not regret it…next on my list is Jamaica, to compare their rum to that of the Cubans.
In a couple of days I will be posting a blog about our visit to Varadero’s house of rum and reviewing the tipples that we brought back with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment