The old factory of ron Bacardí lies on the Peralejo street #3, between the Gonzalo Quesada (old name San Ricardo) and the Narciso López (old name San Antonio) streets. Its offices were on the Aguilera street # 55-59, between the Peralejo and the Diez de Octubre streets.

it is not possible to visit the factory

sales store: everyday 10:00 - 16:00
(Sunday and Monday closed)

The Turnaround from the Establishment of the Factory to its Becoming an International Brand

In the middle of the 19th century, the handmade rum of a master named Facundo Bacardí Massó, became the most popular rum in Santiago de Cuba due to its purity and softness. At that time, the rum of the locals in Santiago de Cuba was a rough and rasping drink, so fiery and unpalatable that it was favored at most by pirates and slaves, or it was referred as a disinfectant or consumed for medicinal purposes. This was partly due to restrictions imposed by the Spanish colonial government until 1796 that banned the production of rum, so that the crudely made Cuban rum became widespread, but it was a stark contrast to more refined French-Caribbean rums, such as distilled in Jamaica and Martinique.

The Catalan Facundo Bacardí Massó (born in 1814), along with his brothers, had immigrated from Sitges, Spain to Santiago de Cuba in 1830. When his wife Lucia Victoria Amalia Moreau’s wealthy grandmother died and left an estate to her granddaughter, he met José Leon Bouteiller that was a tenant of the estate. José Leon Bouteiller was a French distiller and confectioner, so that these two men begun to make experiments on the cultivation of fast-fermenting yeast that would enable the production of a lighter and smoother rum.

Don Facundo had a small distillery with an old alembic, some fermentation tanks, and a few aging barrels, but he had also big ideas, because he had foreseen the potential of the rum. His technique of isolation of single strain yeast from sugarcane was a revolutionary invention in rum production. His rum was light and soft because of its ingredient sugarcane molasses. After years of laborious experimentation, he discovered that filtering the rum through charcoal, was removing its impurities. His special charcoal filters were made of Cuban hardwoods and coconut shells. He was the first that used the aging of the rum in oak barrels; this process provided the rum eminently more drinkable, because it had a mellowing effect on the taste. He blended two different mashes to produce a smooth, flavorful rum - one stronger, like the local aguardiente and the other lighter with a more refined taste.

In 1862, Facundo Bacardí Massó, his younger brother José and José Leon Bouteiller established the Bacardí Company (Bacardí, Bouteiller y Compañía) and opened their first distillery in Santiago de Cuba. The new blend gained wide acceptance, as it was smooth and mixable, in contrary to the harsh and fiery local rum. Initially the rum was packed in containers that had been used for an olive oil firm that was using the bat figure as its trademark. When the consumers begun to ask the “rum of the bat”, Amalia, Don Facundo’s wife, suggested to use the fruit bat for the company logo, as according to Taíno belief, fruit bat symbolizes good health, good fortune, and family unit. At that time, maybe Amelia had remembered also Facundo’s primitive distillery that were housing a large colony of fruit bats under the tiny roof. The fruit bat falls into the category of the megabat, and sometimes they are called the flying fox in some regions. Megabats are a suborder of bats that eat fruit. Soon the Bacardí rum was bottled with a black bat on the label. This was a shrewd marketing tactics, as most of the inhabitants were illiterate, but they could recognize the rum with the trademark bat; thus, the Bacardí rum became known also as “the rum of the bat”. The black bat on a red background continues today as the distinctive logo of Bacardí rums.

Soon the unique features of the Bacardí rum gained great popularity among the drinkers, so that the Bacardí Company took over the biggest part of the rum trade in Cuba. Don Facundo and his sons bought the shares of José and Bouteiller in 1874, renaming the company Bacardí y Compañía.

This enthusiasm and the admiration were supported by several awards, among which the Gold Medal of the Centennial International Exhibition of Philadelphia, in which Alexander Graham Bell presented his latest invention, the telephone, stands out. This award, given in 1876, was the first international award that Don Facundo Bacardí Massó received. Upon his retirement in 1877, his sons Emilio, Facundo, and José took all the responsibilities of the business, with Emilio as the president, Facundo as the master distiller and the guardian of the secret formula, and José as the sales manager. While Emilio Bacardí Moreau, Facundo’s oldest son, was in prison and in exile, Facundo, the second son of Don Facundo, and his brother-in-law Enrique Schueg managed the company. Don Facundo Bacardí Massó, the founder of Bacardí y Compañía, died in 1886.

Despite the adversities that the company faced, such as earthquakes, epidemic diseases and financial distress, Don Facundo’s son, José, could open a sales office in Havana in 1890s. On the other hand, parallel with the expansion of the company, the family’s involvement in Cuban politics grew in tandem with their business interests.

In 1898, an American engineer, Jennings Cox, invented the daiquiri, the famous Cuban cocktail, by using the Bacardí rum. In 1900, after the Spanish-American War, when the American soldiers were celebrating their victory, they mixed Coca Cola with Bacardí rum and gave a toast for an independent Cuba. The new blend received its name as Cuba Libre.

These new cocktails helped the company to be known worldwide, so that the Bacardí Company became the first multinational company of Cuba during the presidency of Emilio Bacardí Moreau. He opened a shop in Barcelona in 1910 and soon after, another one in New York in 1915.