There was a time – briefly – when Miami was a hard city for someone in the rum business. In 1931, businessman Alphonse Capone fell afoul of the taxman for neglecting to report his substantial profits from his lucrative Prohibition-era shipping concern and was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, a $50,000 fine, $7,692 in court costs and an additional six months for contempt of court (to be served concurrently).
The pen was quite a step down from Capone’s Palm Island mansion. His brother, Ralph “Bottles” Capone, and associates like Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik faced similar charges, but “Scarface” was the biggest fish the feds could hope for, and they landed him.
(Jeannie Balfour)
Miami Club Rum’s Matt Malone designed his own labels using architectural details from a selection of art deco hotels.
That was during the time of speak-easies and underground bars, when spirits were strictly illegal. Capone might be a hero to some hard-drinking outlaws, but the forward-thinking Biscayne Tippler prefers businesses that don’t implode – and ones that likely don’t involve extortion and murder, either.
Skip ahead eight decades from Capone’s collapse and Miami’s first legal distillery was opening on 24th Street and Miami Avenue in what was then the up-and-coming neighborhood of Wynwood. Its energetic founder, Matt Malone, established Miami Club Rum with one eye on the past – not Al Capone’s tommy guns, but a family legacy. During a visit to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Malone found out his wife’s family had been distilling rum for five generations, all the way back to 1911, under the Ron Kaneka label. He made up his mind to carry on that tradition to the next generation.
But Malone also has an eye on the future – and that future is local.
“I try to be an ambassador for Miami,” he said.
He designed his labels himself, based on features he’d photographed on Miami Beach’s art deco hotels. But more than the name and the look, what he loves putting forward in the world is the taste of Miami. That means creating spirits here out of ingredients grown here.
“When we source any ingredients,” said Malone, “we try Miami first, then Miami-Dade County, then Florida and then the U.S.A.”
(Jeannie Balfour)
Rum produced in the “Sugar Lips” copper still gets filtered and blended in stainless steel tanks before being bottled by hand.
Flavors of Florida
Florida sugar cane, for instance, is the foundation for the company’s flagship white rum.
“We use that to produce a dark rum, then goes through coconut filtration to create a white rum,” Malone explained, grinning. “It’s been named the world’s best white rum 11 times, including in San Francisco.”
For those in the business, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is kind of a big deal. Miami Club Rum’s Centenario – a special-edition rum marking the 100th anniversary of the family’s rum in Puerto Rico – won a perfect score from the prestigious RumXP panel as well.
Miami Club Rum’s Coconut Grove takes its rum and adds a hint of organic Florida sugar and organic, locally grown coconut.
“And that’s it,” said Malone. “Three ingredients.”
The end product has a third of the sweetness of Malibu but with a more pronounced flavor. It’s simple, but that simplicity still won double gold in San Francisco.
One of Malone’s more recent collaborative efforts also earned a double gold, this time at the Los Angeles Millennial Spirits Competition, with a spirit that possesses a distinctive flavor that spells Miami for locals and visitors alike.
“We teamed up with Luis Bustelo to develop Miami Club Cuban Coffee Liqueur,” Malone said.
The man behind Café Bustelo took his Cuban coffee and cold-brewed it with Miami Club Platinum Rum. When asked how it is in an espresso martini, Malone shrugged and said, “I think it’s amazing. If you want to try it, they serve one at Joe’s Stone Crab.”
If its Cuban coffee liqueur is Miami’s answer to Kahlua, albeit slightly less syrupy and more, well, café Cubano, then the distillery’s other Bustelo collaboration is a richer, snappier answer to Baileys.
(Jeannie Balfour)
Two liqueurs based on Café Bustelo have become Miami Club Rum’s top sellers.
Miami Club Café con Leche Liqueur adds locally sourced cream and a Cuban secret – a little sweetened condensed milk.
“The alcohol content is higher than Baileys, but it’s a truly Cuban coffee and cream,” Malone said.
Tomorrow’s Bottles
As a businessman, Malone’s strategy is to take things slowly. Moderation is always the key.
“They say it takes 20 years to build a brand, and 40 years to destroy a brand,” he said. “There’s also the Law of Fives – if you expand into five states too quickly, you can destroy your brand because each state has its own regulations and basically requires a new company. We’ve been at this for 11 years and have only now started to move into Texas.”
Rather than aim at the big three liquor distributors, he’s made a deal with a neighbor – who happens to be an executive at Mexcor, a medium-level distributor specializing in Florida, Texas and California.
“We like this position,” Malone said. “Our sales double every year, so we expect to do even better when we first ship to Texas.”
As a creator, he’s got a couple of new tricks up his sleeve. Currently, he’s working on what he’s calling a “mangocello,” a fruit liqueur that’s based on Italian limoncello.
“It’s not sickly sweet,” said Malone. “You get mango purée, add alcohol, steep it, then filter it and add Florida orange and lime. We copied the acidity, sugar and alcohol level from the top-selling limoncello in Italy. It makes a daiquiri like you wouldn’t believe.”
(miamiclubrum.com)
Miami Club Rum stands out with its ornate bottles.
And in autumn 2022, he plans to release a gin called Ninety-Miles.
“I’m only the 85% owner of that – everyone else is a small shareholder,” he shared. “They’re friends. Most came here from Cuba or Colombia or Haiti … Lili Estefan is one. But all of them like the homage to 90 miles, the international border.”
To blend it, he uses 50% pure ethanol from Florida corn and 50% demineralized water, or pure H2O. He carefully weighs out all the botanicals starting with juniper berries from Colorado.
“All the others are from Florida,” said Malone.
Diverse Spirits
Gin might seem like a 90-degree turn for a rum company – distilled from grain, not cane, with a flavor that relies on steeping a mixture of aromatic plants for just the right amount of time in just the right proportion. But Malone and his crew have experience making what he calls “OEM liquors,” spirits made to the specifications of a client.
“We made Pit Bull’s vodka, and Club E11EVEN house-brand vodka,” Malone said. “Those all start with vodka made from Florida corn and raised to 199 proof, then brought back down with pure water.”
(Jeannie Balfour)
Matt Malone shows off the vivid, fragrant flower-petal infusion that goes into UNA vodka.
One of the most fascinating, though, is a flower-infused spirit named UNA, created for the proprietor Leticia Fernandez de Mesa. To make the pale, pastel vodka, neutral spirit is run through a coconut filter and a mechanical filter, blended with demineralized water to the right proof, then blended with an extract of colorful, flavorful flowers – begonias, orange blossoms and Madagascar vanilla – that have been soaked in 199-proof alcohol.
Stems and seeds can be bitter, so Malone and his staff pull the petals off each flower by hand before putting them in the stainless steel vessel for steeping. The resulting infusion is a vibrant magenta, which dilutes to a faint mauve once blended with the filtered spirit.
And of course, any Miami rum maker has to be a world-class specialist in one particular botanical blend: the lime and mint cocktail known as the mojito. Where most recipes call for muddling the mint, Malone says the crushed stems can impart too much bitterness to the drink.
Instead, “I use a shaker and let the ice do it for me.”
If you’d like to try Miami Club Rum’s signature cocktails in their natural environment, head over to its tasting room at 7401 NW Miami Place, tucked away behind the Cathedral of St. Mary. The distillery presents a comedy night on the second Saturday of every month if you’d like to enjoy your drinks with some laughs. Otherwise these Miami-buoyed spirits can be found at your local liquor store or MiamiClubRum.com. Cheers!
REAL MIAMI MOJITO
INGREDIENTS
· 2 ounces Miami Club Rum Platinum
· 1 ounce fresh lime juice
(Jeannie Balfour)
For a mojito that’s a step above the rest, master distiller Matt Malone recommends letting the ice muddle the mint for you.
· 1 teaspoon organic Florida crystals sugar
· Small handful mint leaves (save a sprig for garnish)
· 1-2 ounces soda water
· Lime wedge for garnish
METHOD
· Add first four ingredients to shaker and shake well with ice to muddle; strain into coupe glass over ice, add soda water and garnish with mint and lime wedge.
· For a slightly sweeter summer drink, swap in Miami Club Coconut Grove and a splash of lemon-lime soda.
THE COCONUT GROVE PINEAPPLE
Malone’s favorite way to enjoy his coconut rum is a simple twist on a classic screwdriver, made with the flavors of a piña colada.
INGREDIENTS
· 1 1/2 ounces Miami Club Coconut Grove rum
· 2-3 ounces fresh or canned pineapple juice
· Pineapple slice, for garnish
· Cherry, for garnish
METHOD
· Pour rum and juice over ice, then garnish with a pineapple slice and cherry.