He was outside his building and waiting for a phone call when the news reached him. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, had just banned this Friday the importation of Russian vodka, caviar and diamonds to his country. But Enmanuel lives in Havana, under a regime that is sympathetic to the Kremlin and the black market courier he was waiting for brings Spanish vodka.
The vodka It has been replacing rum on the island for years. The oscillations in the production of Cuban rum and the refreshing national beer have forced the importation of alcoholic beverages from anywhere. So in Havana it is, right now, easier to find a Belgian, Nicaraguan or Mexican beer than those brands, like Cristal or Bucanero, that were once the national pride.
“Don’t worry, this vodka is not Russian”
The same goes for distilled beverages and spirits. These days the Alexei brand of vodka, distributed by the Teichenné company, reigns supreme in informal transactions. It arrives through the diversion of products from stores in freely convertible currency or from mules. No one knows for sure the origin but it is intuited that those who serve as a channel are lining their pockets.
Those vendors were trying to calm scared customers today. “Don’t worry, this vodka is not Russian,” they told them. Emmanuel, who had initially ordered a bottle, decided to buy two just in case. “If this is the war we feared, I want to realize it after several drinks, because it’s just very difficult to process,” he wrote to his friends on WhatsApp.
In addition, he sent all his contacts a photo of the label of the recently purchased vodka in which he says that this drink “stands out for its fragrance and its finesse”, although Emanuel just wants something to forget, something that does not remind him of Russia or Ukraine.
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