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Havana Club is two rums with one name
Two rums are sold as Havana Club. The Cuban Havana Club is made in Cuba and sold across most of the world, the UK included, by Havana Club International, a joint venture formed in 1993 by Pernod Ricard and Corporación Cuba Ron, the Cuban state rum company. In the United States, where Cuban goods are embargoed, Bacardi sells a separate Havana Club made in Puerto Rico.
The two Havana Clubs at a glance, from Pernod Ricard, Bacardi, NBC News, the US Courts of Appeals and Difford’s Guide (a secondary source)
Made in
- Cuban Havana Club
- Cuba
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Puerto Rico
Owner
- Cuban Havana Club
- Havana Club International S.A.: Pernod Ricard and Corporación Cuba Ron, since 1993
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Bacardi
Sold in
- Cuban Havana Club
- Most of the world, including the UK
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- The United States
Origin
- Cuban Havana Club
- Arechabala business founded 1878; Havana Club launched in the 1930s; seized by the state in 1960
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Arechabala recipe from 1994; family’s remaining rights bought in 1997
US trade mark
- Cuban Havana Club
- Cubaexport’s 1976 registration, renewed in 2016 and upheld on appeal in June 2026
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Contested by Bacardi
Distilleries
- Cuban Havana Club
- San José (2007) and Santa Cruz del Norte
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Not named in Bacardi’s 2016 release
Stills
- Cuban Havana Club
- Two-column continuous stills
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Not published
Ageing
- Cuban Havana Club
- White oak barrels that held whisky, blended across successive ageing
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Aged in oak, filtered, blended and returned to oak, by Bacardi’s account
Signature expressions
- Cuban Havana Club
- Añejo 3 Años, Añejo Especial, Añejo 7 Años, Selección de Maestros
- Bacardi’s Havana Club
- Añejo Blanco, Añejo Clásico
| Feature | Cuban Havana Club | Bacardi’s Havana Club |
|---|---|---|
| Made in | Cuba | Puerto Rico |
| Owner | Havana Club International S.A.: Pernod Ricard and Corporación Cuba Ron, since 1993 | Bacardi |
| Sold in | Most of the world, including the UK | The United States |
| Origin | Arechabala business founded 1878; Havana Club launched in the 1930s; seized by the state in 1960 | Arechabala recipe from 1994; family’s remaining rights bought in 1997 |
| US trade mark | Cubaexport’s 1976 registration, renewed in 2016 and upheld on appeal in June 2026 | Contested by Bacardi |
| Distilleries | San José (2007) and Santa Cruz del Norte | Not named in Bacardi’s 2016 release |
| Stills | Two-column continuous stills | Not published |
| Ageing | White oak barrels that held whisky, blended across successive ageing | Aged in oak, filtered, blended and returned to oak, by Bacardi’s account |
| Signature expressions | Añejo 3 Años, Añejo Especial, Añejo 7 Años, Selección de Maestros | Añejo Blanco, Añejo Clásico |
Rum, rhum or ron sets the light Spanish style beside the others, and white rum covers the young rum the Cuban classics call for.
The Arechabala family made the first Havana Club
The family distilled in Cárdenas from 1878
NBC News reported the family’s account in 2018: José Arechabala founded a liquor business in Cárdenas in 1878, the family began distilling a rum called Havana Club in 1933, and the name was registered as a US trade mark in 1934, the year after US Prohibition ended.
The Cuban state seized the company in 1960
After the 1959 revolution the Cuban state seized the Arechabala company; the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dates the seizure to 1960. Members of the family left Cuba. The state kept making rum, and Cubaexport, the state exporter, registered Havana Club in Cuba in 1974 and in the US in 1976, after the family’s own US registration had not been renewed.
Pernod Ricard became Cuba’s partner in 1993
In 1993 Pernod Ricard and Corporación Cuba Ron formed Havana Club International S.A. to sell the rum abroad. Pernod Ricard’s own page says the rum is produced by Cuba’s rum masters, and NBC News reported the 1993 deal as one to distribute it around the world.
Bacardi’s Havana Club comes from the Arechabala side
Bacardi bought the recipe and the family’s rights
In 1994 the Arechabala family sold Bacardi its recipe, and in April 1997 Bacardi bought whatever rights in the name the family still held. By the Second Circuit’s account, Bacardi sold small amounts of its own Havana Club in the US in 1995 and 1996, made in the Bahamas. Bacardi’s 2016 release announced a national US roll-out, made in Puerto Rico, adding an Añejo Clásico to the existing Añejo Blanco, to the recipe the family created in Cuba in 1934.
Each side claims the name a different way
Each side claims the name by a different route. Cubaexport and Pernod Ricard rely on the 1976 US registration and present the Cuban rum as the authentic Havana Club, distilled in Cuba from Cuban ingredients. Bacardi and the Arechabala family call the seizure a confiscation, and Bacardi argues that in US law a trade mark belongs to whoever uses it, which the embargo kept Cuba from doing.
The US courts have upheld Cuba’s registration so far
In 1998 Congress passed Section 211 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, which limits US recognition of trade marks tied to assets confiscated in Cuba. A World Trade Organization appeal ruling in 2002 found parts of it in breach of trade rules.
Cubaexport paid its renewal fee in December 2005, but the embargo stopped the Patent and Trademark Office accepting it. In 2016 the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control licensed the payment, and the office renewed the registration.
Bacardi challenged that renewal in a federal court in Virginia. The suit was dismissed in 2022, revived by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2024, and decided against Bacardi in 2025. On 16 June 2026 the Fourth Circuit upheld that decision, holding that the 2016 licence validated the 2005 payment.
Congress has since passed the No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act, approved on 1 December 2024, which extends Section 211’s bar from the US courts to the executive branch. The June 2026 ruling concerned the 2016 renewal, which came before it. For now the US registration stays with Cubaexport.
Cuban rum is column-distilled, aged and filtered
A short fermentation and two spirits
Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says Havana Club is made from molasses at two Cuban distilleries, Santa Cruz del Norte and San José, which was built in 2007.
The same account says both use two-column continuous stills, and that the spirit, aguardiente, goes into white oak barrels that once held whisky.
Cuba’s rules fix the ageing and the filtering
Difford’s Guide describes continuous ageing: the maestros blend across successive periods to build each rum’s profile.
The blends are set by the Maestros del Ron Cubano, Cuba’s rum masters. UNESCO inscribed their knowledge on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022, and describes the masters as a guild with selective admission. Difford’s Guide names Maestro Asbel as the leader of Havana Club’s.
The Cuban style is light and dry
Column distillation removes most of the heavy compounds a pot still keeps, so Cuban rum comes off lighter and drier than Jamaican. The oak does more of the work: the young rums stay pale, and the aged ones take on wood, dried fruit and tobacco. Pour one beside a Jamaican rum from Appleton Estate to set the two traditions side by side.
The Cuban range runs from mixing rums to sipping rums
The Cuban range, from Pernod Ricard, Difford’s Guide, Drinks International and Convenience Store
Añejo 3 Años
- What it is
- Light rum from base rums aged at least three years
- Sold for
- Mixing
Añejo Especial
- What it is
- Golden aged rum, 40% ABV; recipe changed in the UK in 2015
- Sold for
- Mixing
Añejo 7 Años
- What it is
- Aged rum, 40% ABV
- Sold for
- Sipping
Selección de Maestros
- What it is
- Blend of casks chosen by the maestros, 45% ABV
- Sold for
- Sipping
| Expression | What it is | Sold for |
|---|---|---|
| Añejo 3 Años | Light rum from base rums aged at least three years | Mixing |
| Añejo Especial | Golden aged rum, 40% ABV; recipe changed in the UK in 2015 | Mixing |
| Añejo 7 Años | Aged rum, 40% ABV | Sipping |
| Selección de Maestros | Blend of casks chosen by the maestros, 45% ABV | Sipping |
Difford’s Guide credits the 7 Años, created by the maestro José Navarro in the 1970s, as the first aged Cuban rum presented as a sipping rum. Drinks International reported Selección de Maestros launching in October 2010, with the UK among its key markets.
Convenience Store reported Pernod Ricard UK selling the Cuban Havana Club through grocery, wholesale and impulse channels. NBC News reported that Bacardi’s Havana Club is sold only in the US.
The Cuban classics were written for this style
The Daiquiri shows the rum plainly
The Daiquiri is 60ml white rum, 20ml lime juice and two bar spoons of caster sugar, shaken hard. With nothing else in the glass, a young Cuban rum such as the 3 Años shows plainly. The El Floridita Daiquiri adds 5ml maraschino liqueur, and the Hotel Nacional adds pineapple and apricot brandy.
The Mojito needs a light rum
The Mojito is 45ml white rum, 20ml lime juice, two teaspoons of cane sugar and six sprigs of mint, topped with 75 to 100ml soda water. A light rum leaves room for the mint. The El Presidente stirs 45ml white rum with 22.5ml dry vermouth, 10ml orange curaçao and 7.5ml grenadine, and the Cuba Libre is 50ml white rum, 120ml cola and 10ml lime juice.
The facts come from the companies, the courts and the trade press
The facts come from the companies, the courts and the trade press:
- Havana Club, Pernod Ricard: the 1993 joint venture, the range and the UNESCO listing.
- Bacardi’s Havana Club, Bacardi: the Arechabala recipe and the 2016 relaunch.
- The war over Havana Club rum, NBC News, 2018: the history and both positions.
- Havana Club v. Galleon, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit: the 1960 seizure, the 1976 registration and the 1997 purchase.
- Bacardi relaunches Havana Club, Shanken News Daily, 2016.
- WTO dispute DS176, World Trade Organization: Section 211.
- Bacardi loses Havana Club suit, Bloomberg Law, 2022; the 2024 appeal, Shanken News Daily; the 2025 ruling, The Daily Pour; the June 2026 appeal, Lawyer Monthly.
- Public Law 118-137, US Congress: the No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act.
- Knowledge of the light rum masters, UNESCO: the maestros’ knowledge, inscribed in 2022.
- Havana Club production and Añejo 7 Años, Difford’s Guide.
- Selección de Maestros launch, Drinks International, 2010, and Añejo Especial relaunch, Convenience Store, 2015.
- Bacardi v. US Patent and Trademark Office, US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 16 June 2026: the 2005 payment, the 2016 licence and the renewal.
Jerry Can Spirits is an independent company: we are not affiliated with Havana Club, its owners or Bacardi, and we do not act for or on behalf of them. This page is our own account, drawn from the sources it lists.