A Masterclass With Havana Club

Havana Club

To celebrate Old Fashioned week, I headed down to The Botanist for an interactive experience with Havana Club, who are bringing a series of exclusive Old Fashioned masterclasses to venues across the country, including Deansgate, Birmingham and Sheffield.

Old Fashioned Week, what’s that I hear you say? Old Fashioned Week is an open festival which gives prominence to spirit connoisseurs’ favourite cocktail and bartenders’ creativity. Whether you are in Manchester or Matanzas, it’s all about finding the closest bar to you and celebrating in style with a glass in hand.

Old Fashioned Week is a global celebration of the classic cocktail, running from the 1st November to the 10th November. Enjoyed by the likes of Don Draper in Mad Men, it’s said that the cocktail was invented in 1880s in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

This year, Havana Club is one of the global rum sponsors. Known throughout the world, Havana Club is the authentic Cuban rum: 100% made in Cuba.

Variety is the spice of life as they say. When it comes to spirits, rum is definitely one of my personal favourites. White, light, gold, dark, spiced – there’s just so much on offer, it’s enough to overwhelm even the most brazen rum aficionado.

With rums it’s not just the sheer range of choice that’s astounding, every rum can be also be enjoyed in a number of exciting different ways, each one revealing more about the unique flavours.

The evening began with casual drinks around the Botanist bar, where we got the opportunity to link up with some other content creators from around the North, accompanied by the sounds of live music.

Once intros and catch up’s were done, it was over to our expert for the evening The Rum Gentleman, who guided us through the history of rum, the Cuban heritage and all the perfect steps to make the perfect Old Fashioned.

Created in the late 1960s the Maestros del Ron Cubano pioneered a new chapter in rum. Creating Havana 7 using the ‘continuous ageing’ process – part of each final batch of Havana 7 is put back in the barrel to age, to be used in a future production – so keeping the spirit of Havana 7 alive and creating a great complexity that makes drinking premium Havana an exploration of flavours.

Before diving into cocktail making, our rum master poured us a glass of Cuba’s finest allowing us to swirl in the glass and releasing the flavours before tasting, forming little ‘rain droplets’ in the glass, which is a testament to the ageing process.

We were then given the main task at hand, the challenge was to make a quick, easy, fun & delicious Old Fashioned in one minute. Challenge accepted. I was confident I could beat the clock, especially after my previous experience.

I prepped the ingredients as follows:

50 ml Havana 7
1 Dash of The Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters
Cold Soda Water
1 Teaspoons sugar
1 Twist of orange peel
5 Ice cubes

Steps:

First off, I covered a lowball glass with a napkin (to make sure sugar with sugar without bitters entered the glass) before taking a teaspoon of sugar and coating it in bitters. Stirring rapidly to dissolve in the glass.

Next up I added the key ingredient, the Havana 7 before, pouring in the soda water, ice and stirring once again. I finished off by garnishing with a twist of orange peel. Salud!

There you go, the perfect Old Fashioned recipe that you can use to recreate yourself.