Back in the 1950s, the US was awash in Cuban rum and distillers like Havana Club (Flash) put out these beautifully designed promotional brochures, filled with clean illustrations, classic fonts, and page after page of great cocktail and highball recipes for space-age bachelors and other atomic-age lushes.

I picked up this lovely bit of ephemera at a flea market last year for two bucks, and immediately set about working my way through all of the recipes; I can assure you that they're most drinkable when made with a good Jamaican or Puerto Rican rum. However, if you think that all rums are created equal, well, you just can't possibly imagine how much smoother and mellower a 7-year old HC is until you try it for yourself.

I had my first Cuban rum 3 years ago when I went to Spain to go sailing along the Costa Brava near Barcelona. As a matter of fact, I had 5 or 6 Ron y Limons over the course of my first evening in Madrid, which made it very, very difficult for me to hang onto the back of my buddy Mark's Vespa while we were tearing through the narrow streets doing 70 or 80kpm at 4 in the morning.

So unless you live in, or travel to Europe (or become a smuggler), you're just going to have to keep praying that Fidel finally keels over someday soon so the US can lift this stupid embargo and let the good stuff start flowing back onto our shores.

In the meantime, you'll have to content yourself with gazing wistfully at these pretty pictures and mixing your toddies with Brand X.