Cuban rum.
Sugar cane is being transported to the sugar cane mill.
Cubans drink rum, they consume it neat from the bottle. They also enjoy the luxury of a cold beer rarely when they can afford it. The younger generation mixes their rum with cola soft drink.
My preference is the Mojito drink, a favorite of the American writer Hemingway, or rum and sugar cane juice, known as guarapo. Most Cubans do not know these drinks, which are very popular at the tourist hotels in Havana.
The most popular rum between Cuban locals is the white rum, its colour means how young it is, about 3 years old, the darker varieties are more expensive, a real luxury few Cubans have the opportunity to taste, this rum is called anejo because it is aged.
Rum is a product from sugar and Cuba was at one point one of the main sugar exporters in the world. Now all of that is former glory because we actually import sugar from Brazil as we produce very little now.
It is very sad now to see the sugar factories in ruins, where before there was so much life, joy and pride. I remember when I would go to my primary school where near by the sugar factory was the center of the community or batey. Those towns now are like ghost towns.
Some of my friends happened to be children of the sugar factory maestros, their parents were very important, intelligent, appreciated persons in the community. Then what you achieved with your effort and study was valued, and now these men are a heartbreaking testimony to the failure of Cuba’s economic model.
They had many Soviet books at home and they learnt some Russian words. Now they do not know what to do with their lives, some hide anger in their talk, because the difference between their former recognition and their forgotten present is very sharp.
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