Dear Cocktail Lovers,I uploaded a book I really like to scridb:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19418337/1939-La-Florida-Cocktail-Book-Havana-CubaAs fare as I know it is called:La Florida - named after the great and world famous Bar now known as La Floridita.I have a few questions, maybe someone can answer:
A few years ago in havana I found some old monthly magazines from this organisation called „Coctel“. I also found the 25 years of Club de Cantineros book. It is in spain, and really hugh with hundreds of pictures of member etc.I also like to scan this and load them up here - but can you recommend a scanning service ? ITs is getting a little bit to much work here...Thanks for any help. Can‘t wait to here your knowledge.
Regards
Jörg
As fare as I can see, there is no Year on this book. Some origins say it is 1934 - some say it is 1939. Any Informations about that?
--> 1934 seems not to be correct, as in the book it mentiones the year 1935 (page 2) - usually future dates are hardly mentioned in such books...
The book names a few brands like Bacardi, Gordons, Noilly Prat, Martini (funny think - thats the today portfolio of Bacardi Germany ...) and on the other side some are just called Curacao etc. What do you think? Is this book „bought“ - it also has lots of advertisement in it - or are this the brand, the bartender thinks it is best choice?
--> I think the book contains adverts like in a drinks magazine. Could had also been an extended barmenue/barbook of "La Floridita". For example there's also adverts of non-licquer companies, such as the local jewelery (page 27) or local tailor (page 43). Some adverts of local companies refer directly to "La Floridita" (vine company page 21). Reading onwards I'm more and more convinced that it is either a barmenue or a La Floridita Barbook (gift for good guests i.e.) - a lot of adverts from local companies.
What about the cover anyway?
Hi Jorg,
thanks for uploading this book, I have downloaded it now and look forward to studying it in more depth soon. I know that there was definitely a copy of this book published in 1939, but wether their was an earlier printing in '34 I can't say.
To answer one of your questions re- Havana Club, it was in existence, but as you say it was a relatively small brand at the time. The brand can trace its origins back as far as the 1860's. In truth our modern Havana Club has very little relation to the original brand as it was re established as a brand after the cuban revolution. Today's Havana Club is a combination of the name and some of the expertise of the original brand along with the facilities that belonged to Bacardi before the cuban government seized control of them in 1959. So really Havana Club is the essence of cuban rum, taken from more than one brand and molded together to form a modern interpritation of what Cuban rum should be.
The adverts in the book are a reasonably common feature of many books of that era as selling advertising space would have helped pay for the printing cost of the book itself.
Good luck finding more info
Dan
Sanjay ... mine is without cover.
Jeff Masson from London gave some good hints
Cover Photos courtesy of Jeff Masson, London.
Dan Priseman:To answer one of your questions re- Havana Club, it was in existence, but as you say it was a relatively small brand at the time. The brand can trace its origins back as far as the 1860's. In truth our modern Havana Club has very little relation to the original brand as it was re established as a brand after the cuban revolution. Today's Havana Club is a combination of the name and some of the expertise of the original brand along with the facilities that belonged to Bacardi before the cuban government seized control of them in 1959. So really Havana Club is the essence of cuban rum, taken from more than one brand and molded together to form a modern interpritation of what Cuban rum should be.
I know a lot more information, but for reasons that I can't reveal, I am not at liberty to reveal them. (How's that for mysterious!)
As some of you may know, there is a huge lawsuit going on between certain parties having to do with the Havana Club brand. Without getting too technical, essentially the family company (José Arechabala, S.A.) that owned the Havana Club facility and brand fled Cuba and Castro after being arrested and having their facility and brand appropriated by the Cuban government. Pretty much the same thing happened to the Cuban assets of Compañía Ron Bacardi, S.A., but Bacardi had already expanded and incorporated off the island and after the revolution was able to recover with its production facilities in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Brazil. Havana Club was not so lucky, and pretty soon the Cuban government was able to produce a new "Havana Club" brand and market it around the world (except in the US). As far as I know, it is correct that modern-day Havana Club is produced in the old Bacardi facility in Cuba -- which, in a way, would seem to make it more of a reinterpreted Bacardi than a reinterpreted Havana Club, but it wasn't as easy to steal Bacardi's brand.
Anyway, the Cuban people claim that there was no "secret formula" for José Arechabala, S.A. ("JASA") Havana Club. The Arechabala family and Bacardi, the current owners of JASA Havana Club, say that there is -- and they also say that the brand itself was stolen from its rightful owners. A flurry of lawsuits all across the world has ensued. For example, a recent Bacardi press release says:
SPAIN’S HIGHEST COURT DECIDES TO HEAR BACARDI APPEAL IN HAVANA CLUB RUM CASE Hamilton, Bermuda, July 22, 2009 — Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, today announced the Supreme Court of Spain has decided to hear its appeal in the case involving trademark rights to the Havana Club rum brand. The decision by the Spanish Supreme Court is a critically important and successful step in the case, as the Court is highly selective in what cases it reviews. Bacardi, Jose Arechabala, S.A. and members of the Arechabala family sued Havana Club Holding, Havana Rum and Liquors, S.A., Cubaexport, and the Republic of Cuba in 1999 in Madrid’s Court of 1st Instance No. 54 to invalidate the Cuban entities’ transfer of the registration of the Havana Club trademark in Spain from Jose Arechabala, S.A. Bacardi owns the rights to the Havana Club rum brand, having purchased the trademark from the original legal owners, creators and proprietors of the brand. The Arechabala family created Havana Club rum in 1935 in Cuba and subsequently sold their rum in Spain and other countries. In 1959, the Arechabala’s Havana Club brand and other assets were confiscated by the Cuban government without compensation. In the early 1990s, Cuba signed an agreement with French-based Pernod Ricard to exploit the confiscated brand globally through a joint-venture called Havana Club Holding. Bacardi looks forward to full review by the Spanish Supreme Court.
Hamilton, Bermuda, July 22, 2009 — Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, today announced the Supreme Court of Spain has decided to hear its appeal in the case involving trademark rights to the Havana Club rum brand. The decision by the Spanish Supreme Court is a critically important and successful step in the case, as the Court is highly selective in what cases it reviews. Bacardi, Jose Arechabala, S.A. and members of the Arechabala family sued Havana Club Holding, Havana Rum and Liquors, S.A., Cubaexport, and the Republic of Cuba in 1999 in Madrid’s Court of 1st Instance No. 54 to invalidate the Cuban entities’ transfer of the registration of the Havana Club trademark in Spain from Jose Arechabala, S.A. Bacardi owns the rights to the Havana Club rum brand, having purchased the trademark from the original legal owners, creators and proprietors of the brand. The Arechabala family created Havana Club rum in 1935 in Cuba and subsequently sold their rum in Spain and other countries. In 1959, the Arechabala’s Havana Club brand and other assets were confiscated by the Cuban government without compensation. In the early 1990s, Cuba signed an agreement with French-based Pernod Ricard to exploit the confiscated brand globally through a joint-venture called Havana Club Holding. Bacardi looks forward to full review by the Spanish Supreme Court.
So, as I said above, Bacardi and Arechabala say that there was a formula and process for JASA Havana Club rum, and that they have it. Currently they market a Havana Club-branded rum in Florida tha they say is produced according to the Arechabala family recipe and process to the greatest extent possible (obviously there have been technological changes, etc., that have to be accounted for). I haven't had a chance to try it, but undersand that it's pretty good and that it has a profile that is quite different from Bacardi's other products. Not sure what plans exist for distributing it more widely in the US. The book "Bacardi and the Long Fight For Cuba" by Tom Gjelten is supposed to have good information on all of this.
Thank you for posting this! Currently downloading...
Cocktail Virgin blog
Jorg I have the same booklet ,but mine has a lightblue cover
I can say a few thinks about Constantino "el rey de los coteleros".
He was born in Catalunia Spain,near barcelona in a town called Yoret del Mar.
I suppose in this time (before 1940) only a few brands are available in cuba, so I'm shore Constantino use Cointreau (no triple sec)
If you read the booklet you find a lot of recipes with the word Special in the title, those are recipes constante was not shure.
In el bar La Florida was start is carrer as a bartender Miguel Boadas, who return to Barcelona and open the famous Boadas bar.
Sorry for my English.
Federico Cuco
Buenos Aires