The history of Bacardi

The history of Bacardi
July 17, 7:07 PM

Did you know that Bacardi is the largest private spirits company in the
world? Bacardi isn't just rum for mojitos either. Besides having a light
rum, gold rum, high proof rum and all of the flavored rums in it's line,
Bacardi also owns Martini and Rossi (dry vermouth and sweet vermouth),
Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire, Cazadorres tequila, Grey Goose vodka,
Drambuie, Disaronno amaretto, B & B and Benedictine liqueurs. Since it's
humble beginnings in 1862, Bacardi has become not only a household brand
name rum, but it has also become a multi-national corporation. Bacardi
is a powerhouse in the spirits world.

Bacardi's humble beginnings started in 1814 when Facundo Bacardi (who
originally was a wine merchant) moved to Cuba and taught himself how to
tame the once unrefined and cheaply made spirit called rum. Facundo
began filtering rum through charcoal, which removed the impurities in
the spirit. He then aged the rum in oak barrels. Both of these processes
in returned "mellowed" out the spirit.

In 1862, Facundo bought a distillery in Santiago de Cuba with his
brother, Jose so that they could distill their newly "tamed" rum. Ever
wondered why the logo for Bacardi is a bat? Apparently, there were fruit
bats that lived in the rafters of the original distillery. The fruit
bats became a mascot for the brand, which in turn became the company's logo.

Bacardi eventually became a popular brand of rum in Cuba. During the
period between 1880 and 1890, Cuba was experiencing a time of war and
turbulence. Once the war ended, the United States began to occupy Cuba.
Bacardi claims that it was at this time that the original Cuba Libre
(Free Cuba) and Daiquri drinks were created, using Bacardi rum.

Emilo Bacardi (the eldest son of Facundo Bacardi) was appointed mayor of
Santiago de Cuba by US General Leonard Wood. Uring this same time,
Emilo's brother Facundo M. began establishing Bacardi bottling plants
internationally. New plants opened in Barcelona (1910) and in New York
(1915). The plant in New York was quickly shut down in a few years after
opening due to Prohibition in the United States.

In 1936, Bacardi moved their production facilities to Puerto Rico. This
move enabled the company to sell the rum tariff-free in the United
States. In 1927, Bacardi also established production facilities in
Mexico under the company name, Ron Bacardi. "Ron" is the Spanish word
for rum.

In 1960, Fidel Castro started nationalizing and banning all private
property in Cuba. For the Bacardi family, this meant that even their
bank accounts and the company's assets in Cuba were quickly being turned
over to the government. The Bacardi family and their company fled Cuba
to their other production facilities that they had established
internationally over the last thirty years. To this day, Bacardi is
still nowhere to be found in Cuba.

Today, Bacardi can be found in all other places all over the world
(except for Cuba). With the company's forward thinking on establishing
international production facilities and with the help of acquiring a
multitude of worldwide spirits companies, Bacardi now is the largest,
privately owned spirits company in the world. This is quite impressive
for a company that came from such humble beginnings.

The history of Bacardi (17 July 2009)
http://www.examiner.com/x-6861-Bartender-Examiner~y2009m7d17-The-history-of-Bacardi