Havana Club Tributo 2025 and the “special relationship” between rum and whiskey

Havana Club Tributo 2025 is Cuban rum meets Irish whiskey. Not for some saccharine tale of star-crossed spirits finding each other across a crowded bar. But because it makes sense. They’ve got shared scars, shared pride, and (when handled right) a shared potential to produce something brilliant.

For this year’s Tributo release, the eighth instalment in the series, the rum giant teamed up with Redbreast. You know, the Irish whiskey with more awards than shelf space. Casks that previously held its single pot still Irish whiskey were used to finish a meticulously aged rum blend. The result is neither fusion nor imitation. It’s a handshake between equals. One that deepens the Cuban rum’s own voice: richer, rounder, and unapologetically grown-up.

There are 2,967 bottles. Each one is presented at a cask strength of 43% ABV, dressed to impress (in a sustainably sourced burgundy-and-copper gift box, don’t you know), and aimed at drinkers who care more about what’s in the glass than what’s trending on the back bar. Every drop speaks to shared values. 

Master of their own universe

Sure, it helps that both brands live under the Pernod Ricard umbrella. But the boardroom doesn’t feel like it’s steering the ship here. It’s more like masters in different hemispheres riffing on each other’s strengths. In an exclusive interview, Asbel Morales, one of the Maestro del Ron Cubanos for Havana Club, explains that the concept behind every Tributo expression starts with the maestro romeros. It’s not a marketing decision. 

The Maestros del Ron Cubano (Cuban Rum Masters) are the guardians of Cuba’s rum-making tradition. This is a formal, state-recognised title handed down through an apprenticeship system that borders on monastic. It takes decades to earn. UNESCO even recognised their role as part of Cuba’s intangible cultural heritage. Candidates train under existing Maestros, mastering every detail of rum production. That’s not just fermentation and distillation, to cask ageing and blending. But also the culture, history, and traditions of Cuban rum are drilled into them. Budding maestros are told that scientific knowledge alone is not enough. Talk to the likes of Morales and you’ll realise they don’t just make rum. They live it. 

“The intention of the Tributo Collection is to pay tribute to different stages of the rum-making process,” Morales explains to me. “In 2016, we proposed the first Tributo; there were 2,500 bottles, and it was an homage to the know-how of the maestros. In 2017, it was dedicated to sugarcane and aguardiente. In 2018, it was to natural ageing, in particular to the casks. In 2019, it was dedicated to the three last generations of maestros, which was special because it was the first time that a maestra, a woman, participated in the Tributo Collection”. 

He continues: “In 2020, we dedicated the rum to continuous ageing and in particular, to blends. In 2021, it was dedicated to cask finishing. Havana Club is one of the pioneers with this technique, expressed in this case through a Port barrel. In 2022, we stopped to create a Don Navarro product to make something specific in his memory. And then, starting from 2023, we decided the Collection would be released once every two years. That year, the concept was a tribute to rare bases, both rums were distilled in the same year but finished at different ages, one at 16 and one at 23”. 

The “special relationship” between rum and whiskey

The 2025 release is a tribute to whiskey. “We believe there is a special relationship between rum and whiskey,” Morales says. It’s not often we pause to think about the lines that run between spirit categories. But there’s plenty here.

Both are spirits born from necessity. They are byproducts of agriculture in one sense. They were forged by colonial trade routes, climate, and invention, refined over centuries by people who came to understand how time and wood could transform rough spirit into something remarkable.

They speak the same language: distillation, maturation, tradition. Their paths have run parallel for centuries, occasionally crossing, like in this Havana Club release. For Morales, this partnership isn’t born out of novelty. He and the blenders at Midleton recognise something familiar in each other. They’re not rivals. They’re long-lost cousins swapping notes.

“We have a historic relationship,” Morales explains. “Because of that, we decided to pay tribute to Irish whiskey. Specifically, Redbreast. One of the most recognised whiskeys in Ireland (and beyond) and because we think they share, like Havana Club, a traditional culture behind their whiskey. We have a very good relationship with the master blenders of Midleton”. 

David McCabe, master blender at Midleton Distillery (home of Redbreast), echoes this sentiment in the press release: “Redbreast and the Maestros del Ron Cubano share a deep respect for traditional know-how, the transmission of expertise and the relentless pursuit of excellence. This collaboration is a tribute to that shared commitment, bringing together two iconic spirits that honour craftsmanship while pushing the boundaries of flavour exploration.”

The Cuban rum tradition

Of course, there are differences of approach. “The way we create rum in Havana Club is by using a cask that has been used before. We never use a new barrel. That’s not the way we do it. Bourbon barrels go first to Ireland and Scotland. After that, they go to Cuba and Havana Club,” Morales says. 

“That’s the difference with Cuban Rum. In bourbon, you can use the barrel once. In Scotland, Ireland, you get maybe 10, 15 years of use. For Cuban Rum, it’s not like that. These barrels go to Cuba, and they die in Cuba. Some of our barrels are 80, 90, 120 years old. That’s the tradition of Cuban Rum. This is technology and a tradition mastered by Havana Club and by the rum maestros, from generation to generation”. 

Take a look at an expression like Máximo. Morales says, without exaggerating, you can find generations of Roneros who have lived and died in there. There’s more than 160 years of Cuban rum expertise and culture in each drop. “We have taken our rum to the highest point. We compare it with the finest spirits in the world. We can say this is the national spirit of Cuba. It’s not just molecules of alcohol. It’s history, it’s culture, it’s heritage”.

How Havana Club Tributo 2025 was made

To create Havana Club Tributo 2025, a total of five barrels were sourced from Redbreast. The intention was to make a finish that shows the character of the whiskey, which took five years of secondary maturation. “The colour is different from other Cuban rums, and on the nose you can find notes of red fruit and vanilla, and in your mouth it’s very fruity and very evolved. In the thinking of the maestros, it has a very impressive finish”. 

Morales says that it was only decided that this would be an appropriate release for 2025 after the maestros tasted it. Havana Club isn’t aware of what the next editions will be. As Morales puts it: “It’s all about the process of achieving the right balance, and then that becomes the right moment. The idea and the execution are all down to the maestros. And they know when we present something, it has a lot of Cuban culture and tradition within it”. That approach will be the same for the 2027 release.   

The casks of Redbreast presented a different challenge for the rum makers at Havana Club, as Morales explains: “Usually, we receive barrels and in the wood, they have nine to 12 litres of whiskey marinating. We extract the whiskey, clean the barrel, and put the rum in it. This case was different. The difference here is that we only put the bases there and started the interaction between sherry, Redbreast, and Havana Club. That’s why all that complexity and all those foreign elements are in there. We use different-sized barrels in Cuba, from 180 to 800 litres. But for the extra-aged rums, we only use small ones. But for this one we had sherry butts, 500 litres, the maximum we are allowed to use for this rum according to the Cuban regulations. That’s why we were waiting for five years to get the correct balance, and that also made a huge difference. We are always learning”.

Reviewing Havana Club Tributo 2025

I’m told that Havana Club is always open to new trends and that cask types considered by Morales and co include smoky Scotch whisky barrels, French and Spanish wine, Tequila, brandy… “There’s a whole universe of new trends, but all of them have to respect the tradition of Cuban rum”. 

Havana Club Tributo 2025 lands at an interesting moment for rum. It’s a category often caught in a slightly desperate bid to win respect from so-called “serious” spirits like whisky and Cognac. That’s the backdrop here. But when you’re this certain of your spirit—what it is, what it means—you don’t need validation. 

Tributo 2025 isn’t chasing single malts or begging whisky drinkers to take it seriously. It’s here to remind them that rum was never the sugary sideshow they assumed. That whisky doesn’t have a monopoly on depth, nuance, or reverence. This isn’t rum pretending to be whisky. It’s rum with the confidence to borrow a few tricks and still walk its own path.

What rum means

To close, a few words from Morales. You might think them too sentimental or sincere. But I’ve been doing this a long time now, and this is a person who takes what they do more seriously than almost anyone I’ve ever met. I respect how much it matters to him, and when he speaks about Cuban rum, I listen:

“Rum is part of our lives. It’s our national spirit because our identity is built around it—it’s in our DNA. It’s there in the joyful moments, in the sad ones too. In the dance halls, on the beach, during celebrations. Rum is part of anything that brings happiness. And when love leaves us, rum stays. For Cuban men, when heartbreak comes, rum is there. It’s with us in every moment. It’s more than a product to us. It’s sentimental”. 

“Here’s why: it carries the legacy of generations of Maestros del Ron Cubano. It holds their work, their heart, and their defence of our traditions. It’s a tribute to them. When we present this rum to the world, we’re sharing our culture. And culture has no price. That matters more to us. You can give it a commercial value if you must, but to us, it’s about the story, the heritage, the Cuban spirit. And that? You can’t put a price on it”.

“What does Tributo taste like? For me, the answer is simple—it tastes like everything we are. Everything we feel. Our identity, in a glass”.

You can buy rum from Havana Club at Master of Malt. Click the link in the distillery name to see the full range.

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