What Does The Future Hold?
 This final piece following on from Part 3 concludes the interview with Asbel Morales...
We've just been learning about the very fine rum that is Havana Club: Cuban Barrel Proof.
[Pete] I understand it’s a great honour to do what you do, but is this also a very stressful job? I recant immediately – I mean is there a lot of pressure? I can’t imagine stress is a phrase that is in common use in Cuba. It just doesn’t fit! Esther laughs in agreement.
[Asbel] It’s very hard work. I spend more time with the rum than I do with my family. It’s difficult for my family.
I want a little fun, so with a wink I ask: “How often do you say to Don Navarro ‘Isn’t it time you thought about putting your feet up and retired?’ The inference picked up even through translation that Asbel would be the next Primer Maestro Ronero.
Ah... No, no, no (said with a smile), you don’t become a Primer Maestro Ronero by just replacing someone who has retired. The Primer Maestro Ronero needs to have achieved all the knowledge and experience, but to be the Primer you need to believe and vouch for the rum that has been made from the juice of the sugar cane, which was grown in the Cuban soil and nurtured by the Cuban weather.
[It’s only afterwards, when I was transcribing the tape that I realised just how involved the First Master Blender must be in every facet of the process]
It was originally planned that both Don Navarro and Asbel would travel together on this world tour of Havana Club trade education. Because Don Navarro was unwell, the tour fell solely to Asbel. I remarked that I’m surprised that the insurers allowed it. Number’s 1 and 2 out of the country at the same time and on the same plane!
Asbel tell’s me it’s never happened before. And of course it didn’t happen this time either – providence perhaps I wonder out loud?
I ask Asbel how long it might be before he feels he’s ready in his heart to take the next step.
 The final stage is leadership. To know you’re ready to lead the next generation.
“Is this the acceptance of others?” I ask.
It will probably happen that all the Maestro Ronero will get together and say “Yes – You are the leader now”. Previously Don Cortez left us (died) before a successor was chosen.
There have been a couple of times in history when a person has completed all the training within fifteen years. This is exceptional. I’ve been working as a Maestro Ronero for seventeen years, but I’ve been in the environment for about twenty two years.
I point out that in reality I can’t imagine anyone retiring from such a job.
Asbel laughs and confirms that you don’t really retire in this job.
So what do you do to relax?
This evokes a big smile and a laugh. I love sports! Baseball is very popular in Cuba, but I don’t get any time to practice. I love to fish though and because I live only a hundred metres from the sea, this is something I can enjoy.
I’m not surprised on the fishing – I’d have comfortably placed a bet on this!
I’m almost embarrassed to ask the last question on my list, but it’s so very topical right now that I just have to ask ‘Who is going to win the World Cup?’ Again – a big smile and Asbel tells me that he would like England to win. I can imagine that on the next stop of the tour (Paris), the answer might be France if asked such a limp question again, but Asbel goes on to tell me that football is not so big in Cuba. The Cuban people follow big events of course and one of his friends will say Spain will win, whilst another will go for Germany. He might want England to win, but thinks in reality it will be Argentina!
The interview has run on far longer than I thought it would and this seems the opportune moment to draw this phase to a close.
 There’s time enough to enjoy a glass of Barrel Proof and some more interesting conversation though. A rather neat method of testing the authenticity of an aged rum is revealed to me. Asbel pours a little of the Barrel Proof spirit into clean, empty glass. Carefully swirling the rum around the glass for maximum coverage, the rum is then poured back into the original glass. Shaking the glass to remove the drips, it’s placed upside down on a napkin with the intention of letting the glass dry.
A moment passes and Asbel retrieves the glass and takes a sniff – passing it to me I take a smell and I’m met with the strong tobacco notes and as always I am amazed to be enjoying a smell that is different to that of the rum itself. I tell the group that I would love to go back to school to study just why this is.
Asbel tells me that if I were to leave the glass for another 24 hours, I would still be able to detect the scent. This is the proof of the age of the rum. Rum’s disguised as being aged through the addition of flavourings just do not pass this test – the scent quickly disappears from the glass. It’s a simple test – but a foolproof one.
While we were leaving the glass to dry, I had asked Asbel if it would be possible for me to attend the rum ‘school’ that we had discussed earlier in the interview? I tell him that I’d love to take three months off work to come down and study. I’m told that three months would mean that I’d still be studying the sugar cane when I head home. A confirmation that this is a serious and indepth business, regrettably with a mortgage to pay – I’m unlikely to be heading off anywhere for that sort of time scale.
 Eventually all good things must come to an end and what has been an exhilarating experience ends with my heartfelt thanks.
Should such an opportunity arise next time I’ll be better prepared, but for my first time I couldn’t have asked for a better interviewee – so very passionate about his subject and so very generous with his time, although thinking back to some of Asbel’s earlier words – this is also part of his job and I’ll certainly be thinking a lot more seriously about Cuban rum in future.
TheFloatingRumShack.com would like to thank Kiran Gill of Tea & Cake PR for the fantastic opportunity to spend time with Asbel. Our thanks (obviously) to Asbel for his patience in the company of a complete novice and of course - big, big thanks to Esther Medina for the invaluable skills of translation!
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Interviews 
