Don Q is a brand of [ingredient=rum rum] made in Puerto Rico that is owned by the Serallés family. In 1820, Juan Sebastian Serallés immigrated from Spain to Ponce, Puerto Rico and founded a sugarcane plantation, the Hacienda de Teresa. His son, Don Juan, built the Hacienda Mercedita, another sugarcane plantation named for his wife Mercedes. In 1865, Don Juan began to distill rum using an imported French pot still.
Don Juan's son Juan Eugenio not only oversaw the building of the Castillo Serralês outside of Ponce, which was the company's headquarters for 70 years, but introduced the Don Q brand in 1934, which was named after Cervantes' immortal hero Don Quixote. Juan Eugenio also modernized and expanded production, changing over from pot stills to column stills.
In 2004, Roberto Serralés joined the company. With his PhD in environmental sciences, he set about developing a system to recycle waste products from the distillery. The Don Q distillery is now one of the most "green", and has served as a model for other distilleries around the world.
The Serralés family introduced a white rum called Cristal in 1978, and began to produce naturally flavored rums in 1998. Today, their lineup includes not only Cristal (which is aged for one year in used barrels per Puerto Rican law), but a [ingredient=gold-rum gold rum], an [ingredient=anejo-rum añejo] that is aged between three and five years, and a Gran Añejo, that is a blend of rums between three and twelve years old.
Don Q rums are molasses based, column distilled, and are around 80 proof - the flavored rums are each a slightly different proof.
Some popular cocktails containing Don Q
- Love Burns — Puerto Rican Rum, Sparkling rosé wine, Chinato, Grapefruit bitters, Lemon juice, Simple syrup
- Six Barrel Shotgun — Gin, Bourbon, Puerto Rican Rum, Sweet vermouth, Bitters, Simple syrup, Lemon juice