For a while now, it has become fashionable for restaurants to pare down a menu and offer only one or two ingredients (with beef somewhat monopolising the movement) and bars are beginning to behave the same way (though not so much with the beef).

Whether your get-together this year is a few quiet drinks or a raucous 'Hooray! We survived that Mayan nonsense' affair, a few drinks on standby is a necessity. But if giving gifts means you've been mercilessly raiding your wallet and are beginning to resent that bothersome generous streak you seem to have acquired, then avoiding the top-shelf stuff is a necessity.

Cuba is the motherland for rum lovers. This Saturday, 4 February, marks a very important date in the rum diaries of rum lovers the world over; the gra...