MIAMI: You might say rum runs through the veins of business partners Lazaro Carbajal and Gardner Blandon, owners of Miami-based Dana Wine & Spirits Importers.
After eight years of importing Zacapa, a super-premium rum from Guatemala that the partners introduced to the United States and nursed to become No. 1 in its category worldwide, half the brand was sold to Diageo in 2008.
Believing the market was still primed for a new super-premium rum, Carbajal and Blandon worked for two years to develop their own brand, Zafra Rum Master Reserve 21, which they launched in October of last year.
"We felt there was still a tremendous opportunity in the premium rum category _ the aged rum category," said Blandon, 35, vice president and co-owner of Dana Wine & Spirits Importers.
Zafra, aged 21 years, is made at a distillery in Panama and retails for about $44 _ hence the "super premium" category. So far, it's available in eight states: Florida, California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey.
In the $35 to $45 category, it competes with Zacapa, Mount Gay Extra Old, Appleton Estate Extra 12, Rhum Barbancourt 15-year and Flor de Cana 18-year-old.
For their brand, the partners chose the name Zafra, the word in Spanish that means the act of harvesting the sugar cane.
The amber-colored rum is derived from sugar cane, as is all rum, which is processed into molasses and then fermented. Afterwards, it is distilled and aged in American oak casks.
Before bringing Zafra to the public, the partners labored over finding the right distillery with aged rum reserves, and testing the rum to perfect its taste.
They chose a company in France with experience in packaging and design for the spirits industry to print the labels and manufacture the thick-glass-bottomed bottles.
Already, the rum has won four taste awards, including the Ultimate Spirit Challenge in New York City, where it won 95 points, and an "Ultimate Recommendation" by the panel of judges.
"We always knew we had a great product," Blandon said. "But when you enter a competition and the brand comes out with that result, you know."
As the economy enters recovery, experts say Zafra's timing may be on target.
Rum is rising in stature in the United States, along with tequila, as it gains popularity among the younger generation of drinkers, said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a Buellton, Calif.-based company advising the spirits market.
"In the next year or two, you'll see the category really begin to light up, because we know that rum is the fashionable drink for young drinkers, trendy drinkers, when they're out entertaining themselves."
In fact, despite the recession, sales by the case of premium rum in the United States rose 1.7 percent in 2009, compared to 2008, though super premium rums fell 1 percent, according to data from the Distilled Spirits Council.
Overall, rum ranks as the second-largest spirit category, up 2.9 percent in sales in 2008, to 24.6 million cases, the Distilled Spirits Council's data show.
Demand has been driven by the popularity of the mojito cocktail, the boom in flavored rums, the rising number of brands entering the US market and the impact of Latin culture on the US consumer market, according to the Liquor Handbook 2009.
But unlike vodka or Scotch, the super-premium category of rum is still in its infancy in the United States.
"It's the only one left for people to take to the next level," said Carbajal, 47.
The partners' goal for Zafra _ which generated $320,000 in sales in the first eight months since it was launched _ is to sell 50,000 cases a year in five years.
"That's doable," said Pirko, the advisor to the spirits market.
"Our first-year goal was to be in four markets, and we are already in eight," Carbajal said. "We are exceeding our expectations."
Gulf Liquors in Miami has been carrying Zafra since its inception, and sells about three cases a month, said wine and spirits buyer Luis Bordon Jr.
"We've actually turned people onto it that were taking other rums. People have switched over," Bordon said. "It's obviously still in its infancy stage, but it is getting people's attention."
Customers say it's a very smooth rum, a sipping rum, a rum-drinker's rum, he said.
"It's well-balanced, mixed in cocktails," said Gaston Gonzalez, mixologist at Miami's Area 31, who created a "Papa Doble" for the bar menu: Zafra, maraschino cherry liquor, fresh lime juice and grapefruit juice.
Carbajal and Blandon began their careers in the retail liquor business. Carbajal co-owned two liquor stores in the Miami area, and Blandon was a manager. In 2000, Carbajal and his partners sold the stores, and he and Blandon started Dana Wine & Spirits Importers.
"We saw a great opportunity _ since we were based in Miami, and had a great relationship with (distributors) Southern Wine & Spirits, as clients of theirs _ to bring Hispanic _ Latin _ products into the US," Blandon said. "And market them correctly to the different ethnic cultures."