Museo del Ron Havana Club

A Guided Walk Through Of Cuban Rum Making Beside Havana Harbour, Built Around A Working Scale Model Of A Distillery, And The Public Face Of The Most Contested Trademark In The Spirits Trade · Havana, La Habana

This is a brand museum and it does not pretend otherwise, but it is a well-made one and it sits on a genuinely interesting story. The tour walks you through the making of Cuban rum from cane to cask, built around a large working scale model of a distillery with a model railway carrying cane to it, and ends with a small pour of aged rum. What the labels do not dwell on is the argument underneath. Havana Club was founded by the Arechabala family at Cardenas in the eighteen seventies; the business was nationalised in 1960 and the family left; decades later Bacardi bought their claim to the name, and the rum sold as Havana Club in the United States is now a different product made in Puerto Rico. Two rums, one name, one of the longest-running trademark fights in the trade. The museum itself is an hour: a model, a cellar, a small pour and a very good shop, in air conditioning, a few minutes from Plaza Vieja. Taken for what it is rather than what it is called, it is time well spent in the worst heat of a Havana afternoon.

Avenida del Puerto, San Pedro 262, Old Havana, Havana, La Habana, Cuba

Open daytime hours most days with the last guided tour well before closing; tours run continuously in several languages and take about forty-five minutes, ending with a tasting. The bar and shop keep their own longer hours and there is often live music in the bar. It sits on Avenida del Puerto in Old Havana and is walkable from Plaza Vieja. Power cuts affect the working model.

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