Nick Blacknell, global marketing director at Havana Club International said: “Since the launch of Havana Club 7 Year Old 40 years ago, we have been committed to inspiring bartenders to create new rum cocktail experiences and the Professional Edition range is our latest expression of this.”
The first in the series, Havana Club Professional Edition A was born from a collaboration with the Cuban Bartender Association, as part of Havana Club’s celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Havana bar, El Floridita.
Edition A is a blend of three aged rums and a pure aguardiente matured in oak barrels for up to four years. The result is a Carta Blanca rum which is said to have the “mixibility of a white rum and the flavour complexity of a dark rum”.
Bartender and consultant Nick Strangeway partnered with Havana Club to produce Professional Edition B, which has used rum finished in ex-Islay whisky barrels.
The final blend uses Islay-finished rum with three other Havana Club 7 Year Old rum bases. The result is said to be a “smoky, yet rich and sweet profile” which invites bartenders to experiment with a new Cuban rum.
Each further rum in the Havana Club Professional Edition series will be made in association with leading bartenders and available exclusively to other bartenders.
