The recent news from Haiti is horrendous. The people of that island Nation have been struggling for years with an unsettled political system, terrible poverty, limited resources...and now they must endure a cataclysmic natural disaster. I have a friend and colleague,Picard Losier, who is a lawyer from Haiti. We have had many cases against each other over the years and have become quite friendly. He is organizing some early relief efforts here in Philadelphia and we all hope to help as much as we can.

From another perspective, one that is purely selfish and crass, I am concerned that the supply of one of Haiti's best exports will be disturbed. In particular, one of the finest Rums on the planet is produced by Barbancourt, a Haitian distiller. Barbancourt uses fermented sugar cane juice rather than molasses( molasses is the base of "industrial" rums) to distill it's fine spirit. The secret and distinction of Barbancourt is a double distillation process usually used in producing Cognac.They have several levels of aged rum ranging from 4 to 15 years. The 15 year old is a superlative rum best enjoyed neat or on the rocks with a slight squeeze of lime. The younger bottlings go well with tonic or soda. Here's hoping the rum supply flows...but more importantly here's hoping the suffering of the people in Haiti is swiftly remediated. Readers can click on a link to the left to help.