The iconic 1963 tower building of the Bacardi
USA, Inc., complex in Miami.© 2009 George Leposky
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Rum is part of everyday Miami life. Attend a public event and you’re likely to find Bacardi USA, Inc. as a sponsor.
Bacardi often sponsors openings at the Lowe Art Museum on the University of Miami campus, offering a variety of Bacardi Rum products so rum aficionados can compare and contrast them.
Rum and Coke (Cuba Libre) using Bacardi Rum celebrates Cuban life and the desire for a free Cuba.
Today rum is made on most of the Caribbean islands, Bermuda, The Bahamas, and in most Latin American countries. Created first in Cuba, Bacardi moved its main distillery to Puerto Rico after Fidel Castro came to power and established a U.S. corporate office just north of downtown Miami at 2100 Biscayne Blvd. This architecturally significant Latin Modernism complex symbolizes both Bacardi Rum and Miami’s Hispanic heritage.
Architect Enrique Gutierrez designed the tower in 1963. Its north and south facades bear blue-and-white murals by Brazilian artist Francisco Brennand consisting of 28,000 hand-painted tiles. In 1973, the tower was joined by a two-story building across the plaza, designed by Ignacio Carrera-Justiz of Coral Gables, FL.
Soon Bacardi will be leaving this building to move to new larger quarters. Everyone who loves the present complex is curious about what will happen to it when Bacardi leaves.
Sugar and rum
Growing sugar cane, making sugar, and distilling rum are economic activities that south Florida shares with the Caribbean and Latin America.
Big cast-iron kettles used to boil sugar cane survive at a number of state parks and historic sites throughout Florida, including Gamble Plantation Historic State Park in Ellenton. "Our two large kettles are next to our sugar-cane grinders,” says Don Dutcher, a park ranger at Gamble Plantation. “The Gamble house was built in three stages, starting in 1844, and was finished in 1852. The family located on the Manatee River so they could ship their sugar-cane products to New Orleans.”
About the same time, U.S. Congressman and later U.S. Senator David Levy Yulee built a sugar mill that is now part of the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park, near the small town of Homosassa off U.S. Highway 19. This site also has two large cast-iron kettles and other sugar-making equipment.
How to choose rum
Despite all the sugar cane still grown in Florida, no rum is made today in south Florida. Peter Schnebly, owner of Schnebly Redland's Winery, would like to add a distillery to his winery. He hasn’t yet decided what spirits to make.
Just about every Caribbean island and Latin American nation makes its own rum, and natives of those countries living in south Florida tend to prefer their home country’s rum.
Robert Burr, our new National Rum Examiner, publishes a 49-page pamphlet – Robert Burr’s Rum Guide – listing about 200 of his favorite rums with tasting description and national origin. Ask for a free printed copy of this pamphlet at your local South Florida liquor store. The pamphlet also exists in a free online version listing some 225 rums.
Burr is familiar with all liquor stores in south Florida and the Florida Keys. Two of his favorites, because of their rum selections, are:
• Jensen Liquor & Lounge, 1516 NW 25th Ave., Miami FL 33135, 305-240-4000, owned by Eduardo “Eddie” Cruz, Jr. His father purchased Jensen in 1988. The lounge has been closed for years. “We currently have over 130 rums, and the number increases regularly as we learn about new rums,” Cruz says. “If a customer tells me about a new rum, I will get it for him.”
• Sailfish Landing Wine & Spirits, 35202 S. Dixie Hwy., #100, Florida City FL 33034, 305-246-4000. Burr tells of walking into Sailfish Landing with his pamphlet, and checking off his favorite rums. “I found them, and also some that were new to me,” he says. Sailfish Landing opened on July 3, 2008. Owner Brian DeWolfe isn’t sure how many kinds of rum he carries, but he has over a thousand different kinds of wine.
Sailfish Landing is almost as far south as you can go on U.S. Highway 1 and still be in Miami-Dade County. “It’s often hard to find your choice of beverage at the small liquor stores in the Florida Keys, so people like to provision up here before they go down into the Keys,” DeWolfe says.
Mount Gay’s newest rum
Beverage companies often introduce new spirits in Florida before they go national. One of the newest rums to reach south Florida is Mount Gay 1703 from Barbados, a high-end sipping rum that arrived in the Miami area in mid-June, 2009. Both Jensen and Sailfish carry it.
“Our new 1703 rum blends 10-year-old to 30-year-old rum,” says Chesterfield Browne, international brand ambassador for Mount Gay Rums in St. Michael, Barbados. “We are proud of the rum-making craftsmanship of our master blender, Allen Smith, and our retired but still involved former master blender, Jerry Edwards.”
Browne cites historical information that the first rum was made on the Mount Gay estate as early as 1663. “Our flat, coral limestone island is small – 14 miles wide and 21 miles long,” he says. “Several families arrived in the Mount Gay area shortly after European settlement of Barbados began.
“Even at that early date, Barbados was growing its own sugar cane. It still does. Early legal documents show that special equipment for making rum – including two stone windmills, a boiling house with seven copper kettles, and a copper-pot still – were installed at Mount Gay.”
A new Dominican Republic rum
Another newly available rum in Miami is Atlántico Rum, made and bottled in the Dominican Republic. Two young Miami men with 17 years of spirits marketing experience found an experienced spirits blender in the Dominican Republic and hired consultants on a project basis to create this new rum.
“We own our recipe,” say co-founder Brandon Lieb. His partner, Aleco Azqueta, who also is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, grew up in Miami and the Dominican Republic.
“We produced 2,000 cases of Atlántico Rum in 2008,” Lieb says. “Future production will depend on demand. We would rather do more small runs than mass production.”
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Comments
Wonderful, informative article, both about Bicardi, and these great buildings that add so much flavor to our landscape here in the Magic City.
Charlotte Libov
Miami Health Examiner
Glad to see that you are informing readers about the myriad of rums available - not just the expected!
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