Rum Review: Havana Club Anejo Blanco
Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 12:10 am
Sorry if this review is a bit late (one year) but I have been pretty busy in graduate school, work, family, etc this last year so here it is a year late. This review is written from the notes I created in August 2009.
BACKGROUND:
As a historian I was lucky enough to be asked, by the German government, to do some work in Germany during the summer of 2009. One late night while returning to my room after an enjoyable evening watching the Marriage of Figaro at the Hamburg Opera Haus I recalled that I had run out of my bottle of Scotch. Most German train stations have a small liquor store and tobacconist so I stopped in to pick up a new bottle at the Hamburg Hauptbanhoff. I noticed the Cuban Havana Club and since I had just bought some Cuban cigars I thought why not and took the plunge. I think the price was something like 15 Euro for a 750ml bottle
APPEARANCE:
In the bottle the rum appears clear but when held up to a strong light it has a very very faint yellow/green appearance.
NOSE:
Despite the fact that this was a white rum and I was not expecting much I was pleasantly surprised to smell how fragrant this rum was. Swirling the rum in the drinking water glass at the hotel room produced a wonderful bouquet that was buttery and surprisingly grassy. In fact the background grassy smell reminded me of Cuban sugar-cane drink called Guarapo that is made from the freshly pressed juice of the sugar cane. The grass smell is more of an essence and not the intensive in your face grass smell you get when drinking Guarapo but nonetheless the bouquet of the cane remains in the spirit.
TASTE:
Not surprisingly for a white rum the flavors were not that complex. It is understood this rum is intended primarily as an ingredient in mixed drinks. With this understood sipping/slurpring produced a buttery warm taste that finished cleanly leaving the faint essence of the cane in the nose. The taste is pleasant and was actually more complex than most white rums on the market in the USA.
LAST NOTES/THOUGHTS:
In the end this was a good drink. It was shared by myself and some of my fellow colleagues with gusto. The flavors tended to flatten out with water so we drank it with water on the side instead of mixed in. Would I buy it again? Yes, I would and did!
BACKGROUND:
As a historian I was lucky enough to be asked, by the German government, to do some work in Germany during the summer of 2009. One late night while returning to my room after an enjoyable evening watching the Marriage of Figaro at the Hamburg Opera Haus I recalled that I had run out of my bottle of Scotch. Most German train stations have a small liquor store and tobacconist so I stopped in to pick up a new bottle at the Hamburg Hauptbanhoff. I noticed the Cuban Havana Club and since I had just bought some Cuban cigars I thought why not and took the plunge. I think the price was something like 15 Euro for a 750ml bottle
APPEARANCE:
In the bottle the rum appears clear but when held up to a strong light it has a very very faint yellow/green appearance.
NOSE:
Despite the fact that this was a white rum and I was not expecting much I was pleasantly surprised to smell how fragrant this rum was. Swirling the rum in the drinking water glass at the hotel room produced a wonderful bouquet that was buttery and surprisingly grassy. In fact the background grassy smell reminded me of Cuban sugar-cane drink called Guarapo that is made from the freshly pressed juice of the sugar cane. The grass smell is more of an essence and not the intensive in your face grass smell you get when drinking Guarapo but nonetheless the bouquet of the cane remains in the spirit.
TASTE:
Not surprisingly for a white rum the flavors were not that complex. It is understood this rum is intended primarily as an ingredient in mixed drinks. With this understood sipping/slurpring produced a buttery warm taste that finished cleanly leaving the faint essence of the cane in the nose. The taste is pleasant and was actually more complex than most white rums on the market in the USA.
LAST NOTES/THOUGHTS:
In the end this was a good drink. It was shared by myself and some of my fellow colleagues with gusto. The flavors tended to flatten out with water so we drank it with water on the side instead of mixed in. Would I buy it again? Yes, I would and did!