While we live - lets live. Italian proverb
It’s dusk when my girlfriend and I arrive at a friend’s apartment for dinner and drinks. From the13th floor of the Habana building in Bella Vista, I can feel the warm breeze roll in off the bay, and see silhouettes of ships steaming past the old city of [tag]Casco Viejo[/tag]. I lean over the balcony railing and wave, as if I wanted to engage the street-walkers below.
“Care for a taste?” my friend says, brandishing a strange bottle.
“Huh?”
“Picked it up in [tag]Nicaragua[/tag].”
Nicaragua? What vile madness is Ortega exporting now? I examine the container. It’s dark, fat, like a pregnant bottle of Mrs Butterworth.
“[tag]Flor de Cana[/tag]?”
“You drink it straight.” He says.
Like a great many Panamanians I enjoy the occasional drink. I’ll drink to important events like Panama’s independence from [tag]Colombia[/tag] (Separation Day), the uprising against [tag]Spain[/tag] (dia de los Santos), or that my air conditioner’s still working.
My friend hands me a tumbler filled with ice and amber liquid. For a brief moment I’m not sure it’s really [tag]alcohol[/tag]. The sensation’s smooth, creamy; like suckling the backside of my girlfriend after she’s basted in creme de vanilla.
Spend any time in [tag]Central America[/tag], and sooner or later you’ll find yourself in front of a bottle of Flor de Cana. Give in to it. If you’ve ever needed an excuse to become a raging alcoholic this is it. Flor de Cana, loosely translates as “Flower of the Cane”. It’s [tag]rum[/tag]. Not just any rum. It may be the best rum in the world.
You probably know many of the world’s best rums are made in the tropics. [tag]Cuba[/tag], [tag]Puerto Rico[/tag], [tag]Jamaica[/tag], [tag]Barbados[/tag] are the usual suspects. But Flor de Cana’s from [tag]Nicaragua[/tag]. It was first made in1890 to celebrate the sugar cane harvest. Today, it’s aged up to 18 yrs in oak barrels for a smoother, richer, taste.
It’s a thick, “brandy-style” sipping rum. You can pick it up cheap at most supermarkets in Central America. The award winning Flor de Cana Centenario aged 12 yr runs about $14-19 a bottle in Panama. The Flor de Cana Gold 4 yr, Black Label 5yr, and Gran Reserva 7yr, are much cheaper if you’re on a budget. I hear the [tag]Gran Reserva[/tag]’s quite tasty straight up.
In the U.S. Flor de Cana’s hard to find, expensive. Your alternatives; Bacardi, Captain Morgan, Malibu, and Mount Gay. They’re cheap, ubiquitous. But only fit for plastic cups, and high school jags. They’re for amateurs and friday night pizza makers.
The18 yr Centenario (21) is pricey. That’s the one you pray to as if it were a god. At the very least you must drink it straight up, or over ice. Buy a bottle when you’re in [tag]Panama[/tag]. It will be the best money you’ve ever spent.
Don’t drink? Ask yourself this; what kind of [tag]traveler[/tag] do you want to be? The type who helps out humble Nicaraguans? Or the selfish type who only worries about their bankroll, brain cells, and liver? Remember, you don’t have to drink it. Flor de Cana makes an excellent gift for your more depraved friends.
Tonight we try to help. After many rounds of Flor de Cana, we descend the 13th floor balcony, and make our way up the [tag]Amador causeway[/tag] to Albertos; the fine Italian Restaurant. City lights glisten on the restless water. When our meal arrives, I tear into my foil-wrapped chicken and spinach pasta. Sober or drunk it’s excellent. There’s some conversation between bites. I won’t go into details, but I probably embarrass everyone with several off-color remarks.
A bill arrives. I shamlessly allow my friend to pick up the tab. I don’t even make a faux move for my wallet. I just take in the view from the patio. Boats, water and trees are swizzled by a gentle breeze. [tag]Panama City[/tag]’s beautiful at night. Its sins, and mine, muted by darkness, and the demented glaze of Flor de Cana.
A perfect evening of good friends, free food, and fine rum, gets ugly on the ride home. I try and stop the taxi to conduct an impromptu “interview.” My girlfriend’s pissed. I know this because she’s speaking really fast. So fast her [tag]Spanish[/tag] becomes a mind-numbing hum. The gist is, she doesn’t want me talking to street-corner hookers.
The Rum Diary by Hunter Thompson. 1959 - San Juan, Puerto Rico was not well received by the critics. Its about his times writing for a scrub paper in the tropics. I quite enjoyed it. But that’s probably because I like rum, hack writers, and Thompson mad prose.
My girlfriend can be so unreasonable when I’m drinking. I assure her it’s an innocent request. I’ve been planning to write an article about prostitution in Panama. A tense exchange follows. But we’re an enlightened couple. We find common ground. I agree not to bother the working girls. She lets me stop at Supermercado Rey to buy my own bottle of Flor de Cana. It’s next to me now.
The bottle - not my girlfriend. To think, I almost went to my grave without having spent at least one night reeling from Flor de Cana’s sweet embrace.
The rum we drank that night was 21 years old, my friend — older that the hookers you were trying to “interview”, I might add…
21 is also a number considerably larger than the number of functioning brain cells that I had the next morning.
Comment by marcopolo — July 10, 2006 @ 1:48 pm
ha - i wondered about that. i couldn’t recall which bottle we were drinking. in researching this i noted the Centenario 21 is only aged 15 yrs. i guess the 21 denotes the century not the age of the beverage. but other sites claim there is indeed a Centenario aged 21 yrs. i’m so confused. i wish i had some of those brain cells back.
lol you know this started out as a review of Albertos. the food was good - but the rum …
Comment by cojito — July 10, 2006 @ 2:45 pm
There’s still some left. We’ll have to break that bottle out again and figure it out…
Comment by marcopolo — July 11, 2006 @ 11:09 am
sounds like a good plan.
after reading all the rave reviews of the 7yr gran reserva i picked up a bottle today. people say its as good as the 12 yr. and i want to see how it stacks up. of course, its cheaper. i found a bottle in reba smith for $9. probably can be found cheaper at supermercado rey.
here’s what the label says: hacemos ron de 4 anos, 5 anos, 7 anos, 12 anos, 18 anos, y 42 medallas. it appears there’s no 21 yr old rum.
Comment by Cojito — July 11, 2006 @ 5:33 pm
suenas como un masoquista. Crees que eres un segundo Hemingway? No creo, lo que eres sois un borracho, arrecho, espero que no tengas SIDA y que se lo estes dando a las pobres prostitutas en Panama. Uno de estos dias te encontraran en un callejon.
Comment by panamena — July 12, 2006 @ 9:26 am
I will be in Panama city soon, will be looking for you. I think I can find you easy, the drunken american with the dumb young girl in his arms. Oh, I am soooo cool, I am in the jungle, drinking to death, with a young girl. What a jerk. You are not living, you are dying.
Comment by panamena — July 12, 2006 @ 9:31 am
Looks like you have a new fan…
She’s apparently a world-improver who needs to control people like you and me and defend the helpless as she defines them. Hopefully she will get elected president of Panama and she will be able to go in and make everyone behave in a way that satisifies her righteous moral code. I know that the current president of the US is doing a good job of that. That’s why politically incorrect people like you and me don’t live there any more. Get a life “panamena” and please stay out of everyone else’s…
Comment by marcopolo — July 12, 2006 @ 10:53 am
ah si, we are all “dying” panamena. hasn’t anyone told you yet?
you hope i don’t have “aids?” ha ha - how christian of you. panamena, did you surf over from that pro-life blog i ripped yesterday? i only ask because you judge me quite harshly. and when i hear harsh judgements, and a complete lack of understanding, i think religion.
have you actually read my wrtings? maybe you read but don’t understand? if english is your second language i forgive you. it takes years to fully understand the nuances of another language. perhaps you’re all wound up without the facts. so, let me explain a few things.
1, i do not liken myself to hemingway. i compare my style to hunter thompson without the talent baggage.
2, my girl friend will be flattered to be called a “young girl.” but alas, she’s my age (over 40).
3, you might argue she’s “dumb.” not a very kind thing to say. i actually think she’s quite clever to have survived so well with so little help.
4, panama city is not a “jungle.”
5, to drink for a day, and write about it, is not the same as drinking to death.
6, yes, i am “arrecho,” a horny bugger. my girl friend would quite agree with that. i think that’s what she likes best about me.
7, and yes, i am a “jerk.” well said.
8, i not only write about the “poor prostitutes,” but i like, and respect them. that’s more than i can say for you.
panamena, thanks for your astute comments. i eagerly await your arrival.
Comment by Cojito — July 12, 2006 @ 12:38 pm
marco,
you can’t write like i do and not expect to offend people.
i stumbled onto a strange pro-life blog yesterday. the guy wrote an anti-abortion article based on an Onion satire. only he didn’t know it was satire. right now he’s the laughing stock of the internet, and getting a gazillion hits. some of the comments he’s getting are wildly funny. so i left a comment of my own, shamelessly trying to steal some of his traffic. i think panamena’s part of that cabal.
here’s the address http://marchtogether.blogspot.com/2006/07/murder-without-conscience.html
Comment by Cojito — July 12, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Comment by Costa Rica Jones — July 12, 2006 @ 5:24 pm
ha, believe it or not, i almost used that quote for this story. well done.
Comment by Cojito — July 12, 2006 @ 10:15 pm
Hombre,
¿Por qué no bebe Abuelo (producto de Panamá? Creo que es mejor que Flor De Caña. Pruebalo. Se gustará.
Me gusta mucho su blog.
Comment by lakesdiver — August 14, 2006 @ 9:31 am
mejor? verdad? ok, you’ve talked me into it. when i get back i’ll pick up a bottle of abuelo. thanks.
Comment by cojito — August 20, 2006 @ 12:54 am
Great bit. I smiled. You are correct in your following comment re the “21″ actually being 15 years old. It is still a great rum, but the 18 year old is even better and priced better since it doesn’t have the fancy bottle. No matter which flower of the cane you are drinking, you will be enjoying a wonderful rum. As Liberace said, “Bottoms up!” [Was that insensitive? Only to the uber-PC. To the actual homosexual, it was as humorous as the heteros find it. Humor is humor unless you are uptight, repressed, and bored. Claro? Si.] One last note, I appreciated the line about being like Hunter sans the “talent baggage.” Clever.
[I noticed in the preview section that all capitalization is omitted. Oh, well.]
Comment by Bill Burrows — December 4, 2007 @ 3:25 pm
i have abandoned flor de cana like a shameless and faithless hussy. my new love is 23 yr old zacapa rum from guatamala. i absolutely guarantee that it is the best rum you have ever tasted. alas, it is not cheap…$37 a bottle at reba smith. $27 in las vegas…but it is worth every penny.
Comment by marcopolo — December 7, 2007 @ 11:45 pm
ah hah! see how you are marco? i don’t know how the other rums in your liquor cabinet endure the embarrassment.
sounds like i should pick up a bottle and compare. the girls are making rum ponche again (i insisted). that shit is in-fuckin-credible straight. but if you splash some dark rum in it to make it stronger …
let’s just say last year i ended up on the floor naked making an ass out of myself. which is how most of my holidays seem to go.
Comment by cojito — December 8, 2007 @ 12:21 am
i have to concurr with marco. i have started paying the extra for zacapa 23 as well. less hangover, more buzz…much smoother taste. ron abuelo is for pussies…and obviously the poor:)
Comment by Anonymous — December 8, 2007 @ 8:40 am
sorry…just to state that was me in the previous post…forgot to sign in.
Comment by tman — December 8, 2007 @ 8:41 am
tman
abeluo is the best cheap rum in the world. it is still my rum-and-coke or rum-and-o.j. favorite.
i may be cheating on flor, but i will always be true to abuelo.
well, actually, it’s kind of like women. when i’m not near the one i love, i love the one i’m near….or like stephen stills said back in the ’70’s — love the one you’re with…:)
Comment by marcopolo — December 8, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
i hear ya marco…many parties here and some bars ONLY have abuelo as a dark rum choice. So…i still drink it…straight no chaser. BUT…i try to go to bars that give me more rum choices. if no zacapa, flor de cana is good. but the best “cheap” rum here for my tastebuds is ron medellin…just slightly ahead of viejo de caldas. guess i like my rums colombian like i do my ladies…:)
Comment by tman — December 8, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
hmmmm….if the rums are like the women, i would have to agree with you. i’ll be in panama in a couple weeks. wher can i find your sweet colombians? (rum, that is…i’ve already found the women..:) )
Comment by marcopolo — December 9, 2007 @ 7:28 pm
usually la terraza near the veneto carries ron medellin and viejo de caldas. and at a very inexpensive price. the best place to drink freely and cheaply with many other local gringos (though you may not want to get too close to some of them :) ). I have only seen zacapa at habibis on calle uruguay and a couple other higher end bars in hotels. it is also sold by the bottle at the party store corner of via espana and via argentina for the same price as duty free at the airport. i have not succeeded in getting habanos to carry any fine rums…otherwise i would do more mixing of rums with colombianas…
Comment by tman — December 9, 2007 @ 11:25 pm