......................................................................
RUM
Spark up a fat one, Fidel. Once again the best selling rum in the world’s best bars is the one half owned by the Castros. Who was it that said Cuba is anti-commerce?
It’s been a tale of towering global sales for Havana Club ever since the Cubans said hello to their little friend Pernod Ricard. Yes, that was a Scarface reference.
The latest Havana Club- Bacardi bout was won on points rather than knockout blows. In the end, 5% more bars fell into the Havana Club camp than that of Bacardi’s. Either way, only 20% of bars polled didn’t list either Havana Club or Bacardi among their top- three selling rums.
This year the Daiquiri and Mojito were both in the top 10 best-selling classics and while Bacardi might argue its heritage here, if you want to make an authentic Daiquiri the way they do at La Floridita or a Mojito at La Bodeguita, you’re probably best using a brand that’s legal in Cuba.
Diageo, meanwhile, is on a different strategy – Zacapa is for the bars you want to go to, Captain Morgan for bars you don’t. The group has a few other rums, naturally, but in the bars we polled, Zacapa was their smooth operator, talking its way into podium rum position in a third of the 100.
The hurdle for Zacapa is stepping off the back bar on to the rack – partly because its sweeter style is not at home in many classic rum cocktails, and partly because it is more expensive than much of Bacardi and Havana Club’s products. Only
10% of responders said the Guatemalan rum is their default pourer. Yet Zacapa is the trending rum in nearly 20% of polled bars. The rum aged in the clouds looks to be floating in the right direction.
Diplomatico from Venezuela is on the ascent too. It is fourth among the best sellers and second in the trending list, where 15% of bars said it was the hot rum brand right now.
The rest of the list takes us through the island- hopping Plantation, Jamaica’s Appleton and Wray & Nephew, which sandwich Guyana’s El Dorado, Trinidad’s Angostura and the Nicaraguan Flor de Cana.
Quite the spectrum, which tells you a lot about the deep and varied interest in rum, which is the second most voluminous category among the world’s best bars.
.....................................................................................................................
The Best Selling list is based on bottles sold while the Trending list refers to on-trend brands that are being requested right now but are not necessarily sold in high volumes.
To find out more about how we carried out the survey and collated the results read How We Did It.
Check out the other lists here: Scotch, Bartenders' Choice.
