Cuban rum has a long tradition, and like few other spirits, it has been shaped by contemporary history. The Havana Club brand was founded in 1935, but its origins date back to 1878. Nationalized in 1960, it was virtually reborn in 1993 through a joint venture with Pernod Ricard. Today, the rum is produced in two distilleries on the Antilles island: Santa Cruz del Norte and San José. The “Movimiento de Maestros del Ron Cubano” ensures the continuity of the product through the vicissitudes of history, tracing its tradition back to the beginnings of the Cuban rum style in 1862. In 2022, UNESCO added the knowledge of these rum masters to its list of intangible cultural heritage. Asbel Morales, Maestro del Ron Cubano at Havana Club, is one of them.
SLP: Mr. Morales, I would like to start with you personally. How did you become who you are today? How did you find your way into the rum industry?
AM: Oh, that’s a long story, after all, it involves 37 years of professional life. As a child, you have many dreams about what you want to be when you grow up. A pilot, perhaps, or an explorer? As you grow up, life offers other options. Before I went to university, I actually wanted to do something completely different. Back then, we had to list several study choices after high school. I put mining engineer as my first choice. My second option was a subject called “spirits and beverages,” even though I knew very little about it. It was the best thing for me because I come from a center of the sugar industry, where there are rum distilleries and a very developed sector. So I went to university in Havana and immediately after graduating, I started working at a distillery. I fell in love with it.
You unexpectedly found your calling?
I had an idea of what to expect, but it’s completely different when you actually start working. I was surprised and became more and more aware of my abilities. This allowed me to be very close to production, to all the different stages of rum production. After a few years of working there, one of the rum maestros at the time came up to me. In fact, it was probably the most important one at the time, Premio Maestro Don José Navarro. He asked me if I wanted to be part of a small group of people from which the future maestros would be recruited. That’s when I realized that my work had been observed for a long time. Of course, I said yes.
Were you already specializing in a particular area of rum production at that time?
During training at a rum distillery, there are many stages that the future maestros go through. First, we have the distillery itself, where fermentation and distillation take place. The result of this is aguardiente, which is then transferred to the aging cellar. The spirits remain in the distillery for only a very short time. In contrast, they remain in the aging cellar for more than two, five, ten, 20, or even more years. This is also where the maestros spend more time collecting information. At the time I came into contact with Don Navarro, I was working in the aging cellar. He gave me something like homework. After that, I completed all the other preparatory stages. I became a “maestro in formación,” a master in training. We have a word for that: “aspirante.” I was that for about ten years. In total, my training took 15 years.
Were you in contact with Don Navarro during all that time? And was that already at Havana Club?
Yes, constantly. He became my mentor, just as I later became a mentor to other aspirantes. But that wasn’t at the distillery we have today. Before Pernod Ricard entered into a joint venture with Corporación Cuba Ron in 1993, no distillery produced a specific rum. At that time, all Cuban distilleries produced all brands together. It wasn’t until 2000 that we started producing exclusively for Havana Club. As an aspirante, I worked in the center of the island, not in Santa Cruz. Around 2000/2001, the maestros, led by Don Navarro, decided that I was ready to become a maestro myself. I was then assigned exclusively to Havana Club and initially moved to Santa Cruz.
Was Havana Club basically reinvented back then?
Yes and no. Production was concentrated in one distillery, but the concept of rum didn’t change. First and foremost, of course, the raw material is molasses, which we get from sugar producers. In Cuba, sugar and rum are two independent industries. The sugar production process generates very different types of molasses, but we as a brand have a strict selection process for the top-quality molasses we need in the distillery. There, we then use a very special process to transform this molasses into two distillates. One is called aguardiente, which has an alcohol content of 74 to 76 percent and is more aromatic. And then there is the “destillado de cana” (sugar cane distillate) with a very high alcohol content but lighter in its aromatic components. The fermentation process, which uses our own yeast strains, is very short and takes just under a day. This is followed by continuous distillation in our column stills.
This is the Cuban style, the “ron legero”?
To understand this, we have to look back at history. Historically, rum, or rather its precursors, was initially produced illegally, by slaves or pirates, for example. At some point, the product came to be called rum, but it was still far from being a socially acceptable product. In Jamaica, for example, the sugar ferments for between a week and a month and is distilled in pot stills. The aim here was to achieve the highest possible amount of ester compounds. This was “Ron pesado,” the heavy rum. The art of maturing rum, of softening the rough spirit and making it complex and delicate, was created in Cuba. This also includes the use of used barrels. New methods and technologies followed, until we arrived where we are today. That is the story of how rum was refined to the point where it is now on a par with the best cognacs and whiskeys.
Another Cuban specialty is the art of aging and blending.
Yes, exactly. The distillates are transferred directly to used white American oak barrels for aging. By law, aguardientes must be aged between six months and one year to be classified as rum. We go one step further and let them mature for two years. After being purified through charcoal filters, they are blended with high-proof distillates and then return to the barrel. The master distiller can decide how many options he wants by blending aguardientes and high-proof distillates in different ratios. And during the final blending, he can of course choose between different ages.
That is the story of how rum was refined to the point where it is now on a par with the best cognacs and whiskeys.
Asbel Morales, Maestro del Ron Cubano
I also play with the age of the barrels and their position in the various barrel stores. The temperature and humidity there can vary considerably. And then we apply a process we call “total aging.” It’s different from the Solera process. We fill a barrel with a two-year-old base blend, then extract this base after a certain period of maturation and fill the barrel with fresh base. Some of the rum that is removed goes on sale, while the rest continues to mature in other barrels. This gives us continuous ageing and creates a cycle. This is in keeping with Cuban tradition, but is something that sets Havana Club apart. I personally supervise all these blends, using best equipment to analyze them technically. But all blending decisions are made by us and our senses.
How does climate change affect rum production? I recently read that global banana production is threatened by global warming. Is there a similar concern for sugar cane?
Fortunately, sugar cane is a fairly resilient plant. And we don’t work with a direct product like bananas or wine grapes, but with molasses, which is a secondary product. Of course, climate change also has an impact on the sugar industry and thus on molasses. But we have the option of adjusting the profiles of the raw material we need. For example, we adjust the acidity by blending accordingly. We can balance that out. What we cannot change are the yeasts or the design and material of the distillation column, because copper is a necessary material.
Don Navarro passed away in 2020. You are now something of his heir and a guardian of the Cuban rum tradition. But innovation is just as important to you?
That was already the case with Don Navarro, as important as the legacy was to him. He was very innovative in his day. In the 1970s, he invented continuous ageing. He created Havana Club 7 años. But rum has changed a lot in the last 30 years, and competition has increased enormously. Young consumers expect something new that stands out from the old. Take the topic of “finishing,” for example. It is our job to introduce the concept of “finishing” to the Cuban rum industry. But we have also created new types of products. However, all these new developments remain within the traditional way of producing Cuban rum. It is an evolution based on the passing on of tradition.
Several Maestros Roneros work for Havana Club. Are you primarily responsible for aged rums?
Of the nine Maestros Roneros, including women, four work for Havana Club, plus one of five aspirants. The other Havana Club colleagues work in Santa Cruz del Norte. Another maestro and I now work in San José de las Lajas, 40 kilometers southeast of Havana. Our work is dedicated to “dark rums.” Thirty years ago, there were only three products in this category at Havana Club. Today there are more than 15.
Cuban rum follows very strict rules, from the Cuban sugar cane clones and the distillation equipment to the prescribed American white oak barrels. Isn’t that very restrictive when you’re thinking about innovation?
On the contrary, we, the Maestros Roneros Cubanos, are the ones who formulate these rules. Most recently in the “Resolucíon 12/2019.” This is not an obstacle to our creativity, but rather formulates our vision.
When you think about rum innovations, what interests you, what are you working on?
I’m not alone, we’re a whole team. We have different departments, such as production and brand development. In marketing, there is the Insights department. It records and analyzes new trends in the rum and spirits market. It obtains the data from consumers, bartenders, and sommeliers. Sometimes the company asks us to fill a gap in our portfolio, or it asks us whether it makes sense and is possible to make a certain product. But we also provide input ourselves. The Tributo collection, for example, came from us, not from marketing. The Iconica range, on the other hand, was about the need to change our market presence. The individual rums already existed. But the new bottles needed to be more distinguishable and make the Havana Club identity clearer. And of course, we discussed all of this together. But my role will now primarily be to create new products for this line.
Can you reveal anything yet? Are the ingredients for these blends already maturing in the barrels?
Yes, of course. For example, we sometimes receive new barrels when we’re traveling, and we experiment with them and fill them with base blends. This isn’t related to any specific request or task. But ten years later, someone from marketing might come along and say, “We have this idea or we need this or that.” And then we’ll have something ready. But these experiments take many years because it’s a natural aging process that can’t be accelerated. One current project is to combine our rums with other Cuban icons. With cigars, for example… We have a number of projects in the pipeline for Iconica. But the pillars remain Seleccíon de Maestros, Gran Reserva Anejo 15 Años, and Máximo Extra Añejo.
The interview was conducted in English, with Alfredo Guerra translating from English to Spanish and vice versa.
Image rights:
Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
