Unbeknownst to most Americans, there is an ongoing trademark battle between Big Spirits (Bacardi vs. Pernod and the Cuban government). Long ago, there was a brand of cuban rum called Havana Club. After the revolution, the distillery and brand were appropriated by the Cuban government. Bacardi also left Havana and set up business in Puerto Rico with corporate headquarters in Bermuda. The Cubans (with financial help from the Europeans, i.e., Pernod) built the international brand of Havana Club which was available everywhere but the US. I have a bottle, procured on my honeymoon in the Caymans, which I smuggled back to the US.
More recently, Barcardi started marketing their own version of Havana Club rum in the US. They claim to have gotten the rights and original formula from the family of the long-dead owner. They are currently engaged in high-stakes litigation over who has the legal right to sell rum in the US under that brand name. Curently, Bacardi does and wants to continue to do so. Bacardi is prohibited from marketing their Havana Club in the rest of the world.
As an aside, I should point out that rum used to be the most popular spirit in the US. Recall that Rhett Butler was rum runner, not a whiskey runner. Whiskey -- and related bourbon -- dominate the US spirits market, but only became more popular during and after prohibition. In George Washington's day, applejack was the most popular hard liquor. Whiskey is presently losing ground to tequila as the number one spirit in the US, just as Bud/Coors/Miller is losing market share in beer to Pacifico/Modelo/Corona.
7 comments:
Colonials (and also the British if you pay attention in Poldark, which is well researched) drank a lot of rum. The triangular shipping trade of slaves, rum (which is based on sugar) and natural resources across the Atlantic. Applejack was popular in the colonies because there were lots of apples and if you distilled your own you did not pay duty. Whiskey (American style of wheat and corn) came into its own as Farmers wanted to add value to crops they could not easily store at the time. Bourbon developed a bit later (mostly in Kentucky) when they realized charring the barrels improved the spirits.
I wonder whatever happened to Medford Rum. It used to be bottled in New England. I don't know if it was rotgut or a more tony spirit.
When I was a kid Four Roses was considered rotgut whiskey. It was bottled by Hannah and Hogg, which itself was once a high class distiller. I see it's back as a premium brand.
Applejack was popular in the colonies because there were lots of apples and if you distilled your own you did not pay duty.
"Jacking" is an alternative process to distillation (no snide references to Louis C.K., please). In "jacking," hard cider is slowly cooled. The aqueous frozen part can be separated from the liquid part higher in alcohol. It's actually an old organic chemistry trick called "fractional freezing." So it was a primitive way to get concentrated alcohol on the cheap w/o a still. All you need were apples and a cold winter freeze.
I wonder if the idiom "jacked up" refers to this process. Jacked up as in alcohol content.
Anyways, thanks for the great comment, Evi!
@Amp: Four Roses makes a variety of bourbon grades these days. One of their cask strength bottles fetches a pretty good price. I used to collect and sample various rotguts -- even international ones like grappas (Italy), potcheen (Ireland), and Brennevin (Iceland).
Four Roses is now owned by the Japanese. They and some Frenchmen I know have taken a great interest in American Whiskey. Old Forrester Bourbon has been revived in Kentucky. I think there's another brand that has been revived in Louisville. A surprising fact is that the used charred oak barrels of whiskey like Jack Daniels are sent to Scotland where they are used to age Scotch Whisky.
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