Rum Connoisseur
Interview of The Week

JOSÉ MALEM

ACC’s National President – IBA’s Hall of Fame member

1. Who is José Rafa Malém?

I was born on January 28th, 1953. I’m a bartender, a professor, an investigator and speaker with an extensive professional career. I also graduated from specialized courses taken at Cuba’s Tourism Ministry and Cuba’s Bartender Association branch school. I’m a Diploma in Tobacco holder. My official professional career related to the gastronomy sector begins around 1988. I’ve worked in uncountable activities related to this sector. I’m an ACC and IBA full member since 2004. I have executed different director positions: PR Manager, Commission Manager, Treasurer and National President since 2015 which I currently occupy. I’ve received several diplomas and certifications. I’m a proud “Order of Merit of the Cuban Bartender” medal and certification holder. And from 2016 due to professional performance and Charisma, I’m part of the IBA’s Hall of Fame.

2. Greatest achievement that he personally feels he has achieved for the rum industry.

During all of my years within the bartender profession, I’ve always been a loyal defender of the Cuban light Rum. Achieving within Cuba and abroad to spread the Cuban rum industry development and with my knowledge, hard work and job expertise, obtain the respect and recognition from the international organization which I’m a member, the International Bartender Association (IBA) that has sent me to the Hall of Fame in 2016.

3. What made you fall in love with rum and when did it happen?

Since I was a little boy I had the opportunity to know, experience and witness with pleasure this profession, because my grandfather had a bar and some of my uncles worked in this profession for years. Those were memories that I’ve pleasantly saved them in my heart and they defined my life.Although I studied in my first years of adolescence another job, with the passage of time I was dabbling in the world of the canteen and although today I feel the remoteness of my first steps by the first bars where I worked and that extends for more than three decades, I can never forget my experiences at a great friend’s house, where I experienced my initial cocktails at my whim. In his house, considered as a meeting place for friends in the 70s, I was able to put into practice everything that a true rum professional and cocktails can do to graduate as a street bartender. From that bar, my first bar, we could say and before so many years away from that remembered place, today I try to reflect the experiences learned in my life as a specialist of the canteen, a barman, or “bartender”, as they say in these times.

4. What makes you want to continue in the rum industry?

With all my heart, what makes me continue in the rum industry, is to continue researching and knowing the new rums and aging that arise every day, admire the beautiful packaging designs that give them prominence and distinction, as well as learn about the new techniques and technologies that arise in the manufacture of rum and creation of cocktails.

5. Favorite drink + recipe.

My favorite Cuban drinks are the Havana Club rum 15 years old and the Cubanito cocktail and the international area, the Beefeater gin and the Martini Dry cocktail.Cubanito Cocktail Recipe
Long Drynk Cocktail, 8 oz glass
45 ml of White Rum
7.5 Lemon Juice
7.5 English Sauce
A pinch of salt
Blend the lemon juice with the English sauce and salt (dissolve or dilute), fill the glass with ice, top with Tomato Juice, add the rum and finally the Tabasco drops to taste (3 or 4 drops). A remover is placed.

6. Where do you see the rum industry today and in the next 5 years?

I see it in a top position, especially in my country, with great professional creativity on the part of our rum masters, exclusive in the world, magnificent old bases that they have managed to protect and preserve, thanks to the Company’s accurate management Cuba Ron SA This reality puts us in a position to respond to the current market trend, which demands more Premium products.

7. What do you think should happen to grow the premium category of rum?

Several issues must happen, but the first and most important thing is to ensure that the consumer communication reflects the qualities that only Premium categories can hold; like the Cuban light rum, which is of origin and guarantee of natural aging, which for the connoisseur of the rum industry, this characteristic makes it have a higher level.

8. What rum would you recommend to a person who:

a) Drinking premium rum for the first time:
Cuban light rum
b) Likes Scottish Whiky:
Havana Club 15 years
c) Likes Bourbon:
Santiago de Cuba 20 years
d) Likes Gin or Vodka:
Selection of Teachers
e) Likes Cognac:
Havana Club Union

9. Share some (2-3) of your mentors and how you have helped.

Cuban bartender, now deceased, Ángel Galindo, who taught me a lot of the technical work of the bar.
Bartender and Professor Rolando Hurtado Conde, was the one who helped me to obtain a solid experience, in the mixes of the cocktails.

10. What (3-5) things do you have on your wish list for the next 12 months?

As the National President of the Association of Cuban Bartenders, my first wish is to achieve the resounding success of the XXII Pan-American Cocktail Rally, which will take place in Havana from August 26 to 31 of this year.That Cuban bartenders continue to improve the creativity and professionalism that has always characterized them in this trade, endorsed by the language and technical level of current times for the bar.

Achieve a bilateral agreement between the Association of Cuban Bartenders and the International Association of Bartenders (IBA) regarding the professional technical training of our bar professionals, recited by the Ramal Tourism Schools of Cuba.

11. Some last word.

Deliver my modest knowledge and give my soul full, to the new generations, as they dedicated it to me, my predecessors.

12. How can people learn more about you? Website or social networking page.

Email: cantinerosdecubadnacc@gmail.com
Facebook: Asociación de Cantineros de Cuba-Dirección Nacional