Black Tears
The brand making ‘classically Cuban’ rum in a historic joint venture with the island’s government
Negotiating Cuba’s rum regulations
Spirits producers the world over – perhaps especially those making rum – will be aware of the layers of red tape that have to be negotiated before you can start fermenting a wash, let alone power up a still. In the Caribbean, for example, regulations can vary from one island to the next. However, in Cuba, this red tape is in a league of its own.
The island’s rum industry was nationalised in 1960 (the government-owned Cubaron is the island’s dominant producer) and production is strictly controlled by a regulatory council, which oversees proper application of the Cuban rum Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP).
Cuban rum must use only Cuban sugarcane juice or molasses, is column distilled, and uses an ‘aguardiente’ – a distillate of around 75% ABV that is aged before being blended with a higher-proof distillate to create the final rum, which may then be aged further.
The Island Rum Company and its brands Black Tears and La Progresiva are the result of a joint venture with the Cuban government – its first since that with Pernod Ricard over Havana Club in the 1990s. Its Black Tears
Dry Spiced Rum is exported around the world alongside its La Progresiva 13 sipping rum.
The company’s largest shareholder is Enrique
Arías, a Cuban native whose family owned a distillery and whose father and grandfather both worked for Bacardí. “Enrique has invested a lot in Cuba,” says Adéle Robberstad, from the Island Rum Company. “The country needs hard currency to be able to export its rum. That is the reason for the joint venture. Also, the [trade] embargo between US and Cuba makes it very difficult.”
The company operates from two premises.
Its larger distillery in Ciego de Ávila, central Cuba, has a history of rum production dating back 450 years and today’s complex, built in the mid-20th century, includes a distillery, sugar mill and ageing cellar with capacity for more than 7,000 barrels. The second smaller distillery in Havana, Bodega Vigia, sits next to Finca Vigía, once the home of Ernest Hemingway and now a museum dedicated to the American writer. All bottles of Black Tears and La Progresiva bear the ‘Vigia’ seal, signifying a drier, “classically Cuban” style of rum that was crafted by Bogeda Vigia’s female master blenders and enjoyed by Hemingway during his sojourns in Cuba.
As well as their partnerships with the Cuban government, the Island Rum Company and Havana Club have another commonality – they are the only rum producers on the island to use their own distribution companies. Robberstad explains that importing and exporting goods in and out of Cuba can be complicated, due to the island’s use of two currencies and difficulties with vehicular transport, but controlling distribution can make it easier to navigate the potential pitfalls.
The Island Rum Company uses molasses from sugarcane harvested in Ciego de Ávila, an agricultural region where sugarcane has been cultivated for centuries. Robberstad says, “Cuban soil is rich and full of elements that give our molasses a high amount of sugar and fantastic organoleptic properties.”
Black Tears is a blend of unaged rum (also known as ‘ron base’) and an aguardiente aged for up to two years, which is then mixed with spices to a closely guarded recipe. For ageing, the company uses a mix of imported white oak refill barrels, primarily ex-whisky or exBourbon. Robberstad stresses the importance of these vessels to the production process,
“The main source of sweetness comes from the barrels, that’s why we select them carefully and have our own in-house cooper to take care of them as long as we can to extract their best flavours.” A wider range of Black Tears rums is available for Cuban drinkers, including Aguardiente, Silver Dry, Oak and Dry Spiced.
Given the particular situation of the Cuban rum market, some argue that more needs to be done to make drinkers aware of the diversity of cane spirits the island supports. While noting that more people are now enjoying premium rums neat, Robberstad says, “We still have a long way to go to inform and train consumers in different production methods, quality, sugar levels, and bases. However, there is a huge interest from the consumer to understand different rums, provenance and authenticity.”