Cuba, Get Your Priorities Straight: Don’t Expect Havana Club Anytime Soon

Cuba’s most storied native product is cigars, with rum coming in a close second. Ever since President Obama reopened trade negotiations with our estranged Caribbean cousin, Tikiphiles and cigar nuts have speculated over which product would be the first to go on sale in the U.S. Now it can be told—the first Cuban product to go on sale in the U.S. will be…coffee.

On June 20, Swiss coffee giant Nespresso announced that they would be bringing to the U.S. a limited edition coffee under the name Cafecito de Cuba. In an interview with USA Today, Nespresso’s U.S. President Guillaume Le Cunff said, “Ultimately, we want consumers in the U.S. to experience this incredible coffee and to (be) able to enjoy it now and for years to come.”

Please understand that we have nothing against Cuban coffee. Cuban coffee is great. But Cuban rum is fantastic. The island’s legendary Havana Club rum is the only way to properly make a Hemingway Daiquiri, along with several other island cocktails, and until now it’s been the kind of thing you could only get if you knew a guy (and tipped really really well). Tantalizing rumors that Havana Club would be coming to U.S. store shelves have bubbled up several times over the past few years, so we shouldn’t be surprised about having our dreams dashed again. We’re not angry, Cuba. We’re disappointed.