{"id":499,"date":"2020-01-16T12:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T12:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cocktailians.com\/2020\/01\/rum-trivia-part-3.html"},"modified":"2020-01-16T12:49:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T12:49:00","slug":"rum-trivia-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"Rum Trivia! Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

As seen here earlier<\/a>, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about rum. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there.<\/p>\n

7.    "Now there's a solemn old tradition for admission \u2013 or audition \u2013 to transition from a 'come-from-away' to be a Newfoundlander."<\/strong><\/p>\n

One has to make a short recitation, eat a piece of \u201cNewfoundland steak\u201d (aka bologna), kiss a codfish on the lips, and consume a shot of what Jamaican rum?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Screech<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Dramatized on Broadway in Come From Away<\/a><\/em>, a \u201c[Screech<\/span>]-In<\/a>\u201d ceremony<\/a> involves the consumption of \u2013 besides bologna<\/a> \u2013 a legendarily rough<\/a> Jamaican rum<\/a>, which had traditionally been traded for salt cod from Newfoundland. [Screech<\/span>]\u2019s website<\/a> offers both an order of the ceremony<\/a> and a downloadable certificate for those who\u2019ve puckered up. (Don\u2019t confuse it with the completely different and arguably far more disgusting \u201cSourtoe Cocktai<\/a>l\u201d in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, 5300 miles away on the other side of Canada.)<\/span><\/p>\n

8.    A spiced rum produced in the U.S. Virgin Islands is named for (the nickname of) the late tattoo artist Norman Keith Collins. What is its brand name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Spiced<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[Sailor Jerry<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Norman Collins<\/a> had an interesting life<\/a>, and was called<\/a> \u201cperhaps the most influential tattoo artist of the twentieth century.\u201d The Virgin Islands-produced spiced rum was introduced in the late \u201890s as an extension of a [Sailor Jerry<\/span>]-branded clothing line by ad man Steven Grasse<\/a>, who also is behind Hendrick\u2019s Gin and the Art in the Age line of liqueurs.<\/p>\n

9.    What name is shared by a.) a Cuban rum sold around the world (excepting the United States) by Pernod Ricard, and b.) a Puerto Rican rum sold in the United States by Bacard\u00ed?<\/p>\n

[Havana Club<\/span>]<\/p>\n

[Havana Club<\/span>] has a long<\/a> and contentious<\/a> history<\/a>. It was designed for American tastes and produced starting in 1934 by the Jose Arechabala company<\/a>, which had been distilling since 1878. After the revolution, the Castro government nationalized the company, seizing the distillery, and many members of the Arechabala family fled the country (for Spain and the US) or were thrown into prison. (The Bacard\u00ed family also fled Cuba after the revolution when their assets were confiscated…but prior to the revolution, worried about the Batista regime, they had moved their trademarks, recipes, and much of their assets to the Bahamas. They\u2019d also built distilleries and other facilities in Puerto Rico and Mexico after Prohibition in the US, so they had longstanding footholds outside Cuba. The Bacard\u00ed company, the largest privately held family-owned liquor company, has been headquartered in Bermuda since 1965.) So the Cuban government had been producing [Havana Club<\/span>], and started exporting it in 1972 \u2013 the Arechabalas hadn\u2019t built plants outside Cuba and couldn\u2019t re-establish the brand \u2013 and beginning in 1994, they entered into a joint venture with Pernod Ricard to produce and market [Havana Club<\/span>] around the world, except in the US of course. It\u2019s now the fifth-biggest rum brand in the world<\/a>, moving 4.6 million nine-liter cases in 2018.<\/p>\n

In 1973, the [Havana Club<\/span>] trademark in the US was up for renewal, and the Archebala family, which had moved on to other businesses, decided to let it lapse under the mistaken belief that they had to resume making rum in order to renew the trademark, and that they might be heading back to Cuba to make rum at any time. In 1976, the Cuban government snapped up the lapsed US trademark \u2013 how revolutionary! \u2013 and hung onto it. In 1994, the same year as the Corporaci\u00f3n Cuba Ron\/Pernod Ricard [Havana Club<\/span>] joint agreement, Bacard\u00ed bought the rights to [Havana Club<\/span>] from the Arechabala family (or at least as many rights as the family still had), applied for the US trademark that the Cuban government held, and produced a very small amount of rum under the brand, which drew an immediate lawsuit from Pernod Ricard.<\/p>\n

A pitched battle between the two liquor giants then commenced which is still going on: in 1998, Congress effectively invalidated Pernod Ricard\u2019s standing<\/a> by passing a law declaring that confiscated trademarks would be recognized by the US. (The two Florida senators, Connie Mack and Bob Graham, reached across party lines to add this section \u2013 the \u201cBacard\u00ed Amendment<\/a>\u201d \u2013 to an appropriations bill at the last minute.) This law then was invalidated by the WTO<\/a> in 2002, because it singled out one particular country. (A separate round of litigation was also ongoing, based on the question of whether using \u201c[Havana<\/span>]\u201d on the label of a Puerto Rican rum constituted a deceptive trade practice; Bacard\u00ed won this round in 2012 and Pernod Ricard announced plans to use the name \u201cHavanista\u201d to sell Cuban rum in the US and Bacard\u00ed announced plans to expand their [Havana Club<\/span>] distribution throughout the US.) In 2006, the State and Treasury departments decided that the Cuban government\u2019s writing a check for the trademark renewal fee would violate the sanctions and the Trading with the Enemy Act, and wouldn\u2019t renew it. This case slogged through the USPTO until 2016, when the State Department advised the Treasury Department to let the Cubans and Pernod Ricard write the check<\/a> in light of the thaw in relations under President Obama…which then landed the dispute over the trademark\u2019s rightful owner in federal court. Bacard\u00ed has turned to the court of public opinion as well, staging a musical play in Miami<\/a> to tell the story of the Arechabala family.<\/p>\n