HAVANA, April 18 (Reuters) - Cuba is famous for its rum cocktails and on Wednesday evening below Havana´s iconic Morro Castle, guarding its bay, 400 people gathered to toast its best-known rum, 유로247주소 Havana Club, but not with Cuba libres, mojitos and daiquiris in hand

>The festivities marked the culmination of an international competition sponsored by the brand, a joint venture between Cuba Ron S.A. and Pernod Ricard, pitting the cocktail mixing skills of 600 bartenders against one another

>"The uniqueness of the event is that beyond promoting the individual creation of cocktails ... it takes into account friendship and camaraderie," said Havana Club's global ambassador, Alfredo Guerra

>Alexandra Constantinescu from England said, "I think the most difficult thing is the time, to work under pressure.

>She was one of 16 finalists in eight teams attending the event and offering the guests a choice of original cocktails

>"We are coming from different countries, so the products we use have a different taste. The banana in England tastes different from the banana in Cuba, and all the cocktails were made and balanced here and that´s the most beautiful thing," she said

>Constantinescu and her teammate did not win the grand prize for the world´s best Havana Club cocktail mixer, nor did teams from China, Spain, Brazil and other countries

>The team from Greece, made up of Danos Minoudis and Andreas Giaprakas walked away with the 10,000-euro ($10,700) prize. ($1 = 0.9390 euro) (Reporting by Carlos Carrillo, Alien Fernández and Mario Fuentes; writing by Marc Frank; editing by Jonathan Oatis)