A tropical, luxury dining experience in celebration of Havana Club’s New Premium Iconica Collection

Traditional Cuban Sombremesa style dinners were launched by Havana Club this Summer to celebrate its new Icónica Collection, a selection of distinctive aged sipping rums. Sobremesa is the relaxed, after-dinner socialising that is common throughout Cuba.

As guests relaxed in the surroundings of Clerkenwell Cooperage, an ultra-exclusive private residence located on the site of a former distillery and hand-picked by One Fine Stay, they enjoyed a modern interpretation of Cuba’s cuisine created by chef Marcus Bean.

Cuban culture is synonymous with conversation and culture, so creative leaders including author Damian Barr, film director Rosa Bosch and art historian Jasmine Chohan – led intriguing after dinner conversations on various aspects of the country’s history.

But it was Havana Club’s finest rums that took centre stage as Havana’s expert Luke McFayden guided guests through the experience of two of Cuba’s finest rum expressions – the Iconica range’s Maximo and Tributo. Tributo 2016 is limited to 2500 bottles globally and a new expression is released each year, while Maximo represents the very pinnacle of the Maestros Roneros works; these ‘rum masters’ in Cuba train for a minimum of 15 years and are the guardians of the entire production process, from distillation through to bottling. Limited to 1000 bottles per year, Maximo is handcrafted by blending the best and oldest rum reserves that have been left to age in Havana Club’s cellars.

When it comes to luxury, these evenings showed that while Cuba is still doing things a little differently, it can compete with the best of them.

havana-club.com/en-ww/rum/iconica-collection