Imagine rolling into the airport lounge earlier than your flight and as a substitute of the bottom-shelf liquor, low cost wine, and unhealthy beer you’ll discover included in U.S. lounges, you get to sip the most effective rum on this planet as a substitute. It’s not a dream: that’s the setting of the Ron Zacapa Casa de Ron within the Guatemala City Airport. And it may be all yours in case you have a Priority Pass membership.
We’ve made no secret right here about our favourite rum, which is an opinion numerous the specialists share. The finest Guatemalan rum, Ron Zacapa, beats out the remainder of Central America and the Caribbean in our opinion and should you throw of their Botran rum too, they could simply have two within the prime 5. Unless you step all the best way as much as their Ron Zacapa XO version in a really fancy bottle, you may get this tremendous rum for a really cheap worth, a tiny fraction of what you’ll pay for Scotch and even bourbon that has skilled the identical stage of growing older.
I used to be really sorry I had booked an early flight after I walked into this lounge and I used to be very tempted to do some day consuming. It was 9:00 within the morning although, so I made a decision to be a accountable grownup and have espresso as a substitute. I checked out the scene on behalf of you although, expensive reader, and was salivating sufficient that I’m prepared to go again to Guatemala on one other journey so I might be on the Casa de Ron later within the day to essentially get pleasure from it. You might earn again portion of the annual payment in your Priority Pass membership from this lounge alone should you do a rum flight right here.
Casa de Ron on the Guatemala City Airport
While this Central American nation does have a couple of different airports, together with one serving Tikal, they solely get a smattering of worldwide flights. So should you go to the nation, you’ll virtually absolutely fly into La Aurora International Airport, with the code of GUA. When I first visited this airport with my spouse and younger daughter again within the late ’00s on trip, the Guatemala City airport was moderately dumpy and unhappy trying. They’ve made nice strides since then, nonetheless, and it’s now on par with what you’d count on from a capital metropolis take-off and touchdown facility.
There are literally two lounges within the GUA airport. One is the Copa Club lounge serving enterprise class passengers of Copa Airlines, those that have excessive sufficient standing with Star Alliance to get in, or Priority Pass members. So should you’re within the latter camp, you’ve acquired two decisions. The Copa one could also be much less crowded should you aren’t a rum fan or it’s too early for a drink.
Casa de Ron is a celebration of tremendous Guatemalan aged rum, nonetheless, and an actual deal with if you wish to pattern the corporate’s items with out shopping for a complete bottle to see what you want. It’s a horny facility too, newly constructed on this bi-level location in 2019. You can sit at a desk or stomach as much as the bar and check out no matter you’d like from their rum menu, with the one restriction being that you simply’re restricted to 1 drink solely of the Centenario XO rum. That’s an affordable sufficient restrict contemplating that a bottle retails for round $135.
Otherwise, you’re welcome to attempt a Ron Botron 15-year, a Zacapa 23-year, or an fascinating Edicion Negra model that’s saved in charred bourbon and pink wine barrels. That final one appears like a recipe for catastrophe, however all Zacapa merchandise are blended with the Solera methodology, which means the 23-year rum is simply partly 23-year rum, for instance. So the grasp distiller can flip the depth up or down on the ratios of what got here out of these various barrels with out having to reveal something.
Here’s the complete checklist of what they’re pouring:
- Zacapa XO (1 per particular person, restrictions could apply)
- Zacapa Edición Negra
- Zacapa 23
- Botran Solera 18
- Botran Reserva 15
- Botran Añejo 12
- Botran Reserva Blanca
- Ron Colonial
Some purists get irritated with this Sistema Solera methodology because it’s as opaque as what’s in your glass and also you don’t actually know what you’re paying for once you see an growing older years indication on the label. For me although, the ultimate product’s style issues greater than what goes on within the mixing course of and this manner you’ve assured of consistency too. A Ron Zacapa 23 goes to style the identical whether or not you purchase it in 2015 or 2025.
There’s additionally somewhat schooling within the combine, from the shows on the partitions to info the bartender will present on the background. Then when your abdomen begins rumbling, there’s meals on provide such as you’d discover in any airport lounge although once more, superior to what you’ll discover in a U.S. one run by the massive 3 legacy carriers. (I didn’t drink, however I did get to eat.) Here’s the menu in English.
The Casa de Ron VIP lounge is situated between gates 6 and seven within the worldwide terminal and is open from 4:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Exit by the Rum Shop
If you favored what you tried in Casa de Ron sufficient to carry some house with you, that’s as straightforward as swiping your bank card on the best way out. There’s a horny show of Zacapa rum manufacturers, with costs marked, so you may get a duty-free bottle right here with out visiting every other shops within the Guatemala City airport. Prices are in keeping with what you’ll discover elsewhere in Guatemala, lower than what you’d seemingly spend at a liquor retailer in your personal metropolis.
When I visited on the finish of 2023, for instance, a liter of the Zacapa 23 was simply $46, an actual discount, and the Edicion Negra in a pleasant present field was $65 for a liter.
As talked about earlier in our put up about Guatemalan rum, Casa de Ron has expanded its choices over time and this airport location is simply probably the most handy one to attempt. If you don’t have lounge entry, it’s straightforward sufficient to pay up elsewhere and have your personal educated sampling at a Casa de Ron in Guatemala City (a number of places) and the historic heart of Antigua.
They don’t simply pour rum right into a glass although. If there’s somebody in your occasion that doesn’t get pleasure from consuming spirits neat and desires to have a cocktail as a substitute, they’re comfortable to oblige. The bartender will combine up a signature cocktail that might be value taking a photograph of in your social media feed.
Are you headed to Guatemala quickly? See our opinions of the finest Guatemala inns for luxurious vacationers and take a look at our Guatemalan journey web page for a couple of tour tales too.
Article and pictures by Luxury Latin America editor Timothy Scott, who visited the Casa de Ron within the Guatemala airport in December of 2023 and did a tasting at one of many capital metropolis places on an earlier journey.
Article by Timothy
Timothy Scott is the founder and editor of Luxury Latin America and has been overlaying the area as a journey journalist because the mid-2000s. He has visited every nation we cowl a number of instances and is predicated in a UNESCO World Heritage metropolis in central Mexico, the place he owns a house. See contact info right here.