Hello my name is Richard Arregui and I would like to introduce you to Grand Havana Rum our family's rum since my great grandfather produced it on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba in the late 19th century.

This recipe was handed down to my grandfather, then to my father. As you might be aware due to political changes in Cuba in 1960 my father and mother found themselves having to flee communism and come to the U.S. About 8 years ago my father and I decided to take my great grandfathers recipe and produce it.

We had always been great fans of rum, but as my father says "there are really no rums on the market that truly conjure up the flavorful memories of Cuba". Hence we decided to produce our family's recipe.
The quest was not easy to find a distillery that would produce rum according to our specifications. We finally arrived to the Island of Grenada, where an old Cuban family friend was living. His family had interest in a distillery that happened to have a copper kettle and was interested in producing small batch rum. Trust us quantity is not our goal, rather quality.

Our distillery dates from 1800 and we still utilize a copper kettle where we double distill our rum. The exact same way my great grandfather did. We age our rum in sherry casks (barrels), which we bought in Spain and brought over to Grenada. Our rum is a special blend of 5 to 7 year old rum. Ours is produced in small batches; at times no more than 600 cases are produced.

These batches are then recorded in distillery records and handwritten on each bottle. Our rum is not like most rums in the market place which are produced in stainless steel column distillation, and producing large quantities, giving preference to quantity over quality.

To the very discriminating connoisseur since our rum is still hand labored one can find few nuances in flavor. The sherry cask makes our rum a very smooth sipping rum.

Our label represents our heritage with the Havana Cathedral on the front of the label and the silhouette of the Island of Cuba. On the bottom of the label you will find our hand written batch number.

Our rum has a limited production of no more than 200,000 to 300,000 bottles per year. Not much but then again we are seeking the consumer who wishes to enjoy a fine sipping rum like no other.

We thank you for your interest in Grand Havana Rum - Reserva Excelencia and we are confident it will be of success to you as well.

Salud,

Richard Arregui

Most liquors, whiskey, scotch, gin and vodka are made from distilling fermented grains. The yeast that ferments these grains can only convert sugar into alcohol. Unfortunately, there is not much sugar in the grains used. These grains, corn, rye, wheat and barley (or potato in the case of most vodkas) are mostly starches. The yeast must first convert the starch into sugar before it can convert the sugar into ethyl alcohol. In the process of making this first conversion, some of the starch is converted into various aldehydes and ketones. IF THESE CHEMICALS SOUND OMINOUS THEY SHOULD. THESE CHEMICALS ARE VERY TOXIC TO THE LIVER. When the fermented mash is distilled into its alcoholic beverage, these volatile chemicals are also transferred to the beverage.

Rum on the other hand is not fermented from starchy grains, but from naturally sweet molasses. Molasses is the juice from the sugar cane, cooked into sweet sticky syrup. The yeast ferments molasses thinned with water directly into ethyl alcohol without creating the aldehydes and ketones that are found in grain fermentation.

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