Shalom Klein and Levi Stein are in Puerto Rico as part of Merkos Shlichus, rabbinical students visitation program to small Jewish communities.
Here is what they blogged:
Good news for rum aficionados! Bacardi is kosher (clear, not all flavors).
We know because we visited the Bacardi Rum Factory in Catano, Puerto Rico, to review the production process and to see first hand whether the rum is kosher and okay for Jewish consumers.
Turns out that…it is!
According to the people we spoke to, they produce a hundred thousand bottles of rum each day—now that is a lot of kosher drink!
Some highlights of our trip included shmoozing with the senior manager of the plant, donning hardhats and touring the entire factory, a private lesson on how to mix the best rum-based cocktails that Puerto Rico has to offer, and the beautiful view of the Atlantic we enjoyed both ways from Isla Verda. Best of all, they were giving free drinks! (Too bad we had to drive…)
To be dan lekaf zechus, I would assume they checked with a reputable kashrus organization BEFORE their “press release”, which was merely for the publicity anyway.
They are nice boys, granted, but even for the kicks, such a thing should never have been posted. There is a minimum standard of learning required.
Stick to putting on tefillin with people and don’t play Rov.
Dear bochurim,
Please do NOT stick your nose into inyonim you dont know about!!
A fellow bochur
i dont care its good to see shalom BUSY, and levi stein adding it one more to his “list” of being on the media! good work detroiters!
I wrote comment 22. It was meant to be in response to comment #20, not #19. Shach YD:96:20 is dealing with lemons cut by unsupervised non-jews, and explains why they are NOT problematic by dint of being charif. While there is absolutely no reference to “l’chatchila” and “b’dieved” here, this is a standard case of bitul which by definition only comes into play ex post facto of a problem (e.g. wine & cheese party) occurring. If there was a wine and cheese party the night before, then the cheese residue is cleaned off the knife with the first few limes,… Read more »
Dear Am Ho’oretz, To answer your questions: 1) That’s not for us to guess, it’s for a mashgiach to determine. Why are you so sure that the knife is kosher just because YOU can’t think of where the knife might have been before? For all we know there was a wine and cheeze (shamnunis) party the night before for employees and the knife was used on the cheeze. 2) The Shach is not giving you a lechatchila point of view. This is all bedieved. Lechatchila, bochurim should not give a hechsher on something that is bedieved. LAST POINT: The issue… Read more »
keep up the good work
never before were all the travels of merkos shluchim put out there for everyone to see. but these kinds of things always happen it’s part of th way it goes. you go here and there and everywhere. be dan lkaf zchus. and those who have a problem maybe they just never gave up their summer for the rebbe’s shlichus.
vos is mikoiach zich einhalten a bissel, limud zechus vechulhu,
Why don’t you learn a bissel. Your comments show that you are also online and that you do not learn.
1) What non-kosher substance could possibly be on the production line’s lime knife?
2) According to Shach YD:96:20, since lemons are a weaker level of Charif, therefore only the first few cuts will be Michalya LN”T L’Shvach, and these will be Botul B’Roiv. I believe limes are even weaker than lemons, no?
You mean “the wine is nisbatel”, or “botul”, not “mebatel”.
And you are incorrect if the process includes wine precisely to infuse the rum with its flavor, (as is probably the case,) in which case bitul doesn’t occur.
was the lime cut with kosher knife? lime is a dovor chorif
i wrote the comment number 14. if u wanna say something just say it. if u really feel the spirit of 17 tammuz, so what are u doing online, go take a seifer and learn abisl
I want to tell you something but in the spirit of 17 tammuz i will refreign
most mashkeh is kosher anyway. rum is made from pure sugar cane. there isnt a problem. given the fact water has a hechsher (which i think is on par with fraud with the hechser companies) the hechsharim create a problem out of nothing to make more green,which is a disgrace!
we want some kosher chardonnay and sauvignon.
if the bacardi is made in wine barrils , is not a problem at all.
says in hilchos taarubes ,that is not a problem. Since that the bacardi is beshefa neged the isur bolua of the wine.So the wine is mebatel
According to CRC
http://www.crcweb.org/kosher/consumer/liquorList.html
Rum generally requires certification.
Bacardi (unflavored varieties) is acceptable without a kosher symbol on the label.
Yes this is part of Merkos Shlichus – They probably visited the plant because there was someone (owner, manager or employee) there was Jewish. Or even if none there was Jewish, still good to visit…
The bochurim posted this as a fun tidbit for “Roving Rabbis” readers. It does not translate well to this site and it is only right to them and to your readers that you post a proper rabbi’s comments on Bacardi.
this is merkos shlichuis?oy vey
hey guys hows the surff?
no words
I have to agree with previous posters. Is this Merkos Shlichus, now?
What DO bochurim now about complex production?
This is laughable. Can we hear an official response from a RESPECTED authority, such as OK LABS?
And if yes are they old wine barrels?
Trust bochorim they know a drink!!!!
Scoot, drinking?
what does that have to do with touring factories???
What the heck? Since when can they give a hechsher? And how do they know that the ingredients or suppliers won’t change tomorrow? What about issues of “chanan” and “charif” which exasperate smaller problems? Very irresponsible for them to write such a blog.
do these bochrim know what they are doing hashgocha is complex