Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Bacardi Cocktail inspired by the day that the Bacardi company was formed, February 4, 1862.
That’s the day Don Facundo Bacardi Massó, a Spanish expat in Cuba, founded Bacardi Limited. For good reason, most people immediately think rum when they hear the name Bacardi: We have Señor Massó to thank for creating the first clear, mixable rum.
But the company he began has grown to provide a lot more than just rum. Bacardi now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels and is the world’s largest privately-held spirits company. The company is owned by the descendants of Don Facundo Bacardí Massó, over 7 generations' worth, who control more than 95% of the shares, with an estimated annual revenue of around $4.7B. Not bad for a family-owned business that started out trying to “tame” rum.
Facundo Bacardi Massó emigrated from Spain to Cuba when he was about 16 and became a wine importer in his 20s. In 1862, he and one of his brothers bought a small distiller, and Bacardi was born. At the time, rum was cheaply made and considered a rough spirit. The Cuban middle class didn’t buy it, but Fernando set out to “tame” it. He first isolated a proprietary strain of yeast from local sugar cane that he could use to ferment & distill his new brand of rum. He also invented a new system for clarifying the rum, in the process pioneering charcoal rum filtration, to remove the impurities and dark color from his rum. His finished recipe eventually blended two separate distillates and used charcoal filtration, creating the first white rum. But then they needed to bottle and brand their new product.
Facundo’s wife, Doña Amalia, had noticed a colony of fruit bats hanging in the rafters of the distillery. She recognized the importance of the bat to the Spanish and Cuban Taíno indigenous people, as symbols of good health, family unity, and good fortune. She suggested adopting the bat as the symbol of BACARDÍ rum – and soon, the locals began to ask for “el ron del murcielago” – the rum of the bat.
Bacardi rum quickly gained a reputation as superior to other rums and the distillery flourished. They won recognition at the 1876 World Fair and picked up fans throughout the late 19th century. But it was Prohibition in the U.S. that brought fame. When Prohibition went into effect, Cuba became the closest destination for many Americans to legally buy a drink. Seaplanes and ferries brought the crowds of Americans, who were surprised to find such a refined rum. They bought it, smuggled it back to the U.S., and spoke highly of it to their friends. Cuba gained prominence as the home of rum, and Bacardi was the top of the heap.
After Prohibition, Bacardi set up a U.S. distillery in Puerto Rico to avoid stiff import tariffs. Concerns over Cuba’s leader at the time, Fulgencio Batista, also led Bacardi to open a distillery in Mexico and transfer all trademarks and other intellectual property to the Bahamas. That was a prescient move because in 1960, Fidel Castro’s government seized all of Bacardi’s assets in Cuba. But because the Bacardi company had diversified their ownership structure, they just moved their global headquarters to a new location in Hamilton, Bermuda, where their worldwide headquarters remains to this day.
Bacardi drinks are not easily found in Cuba today. The main brand of rum in Cuba is now Havana Club, produced by a company that was confiscated and nationalized by the Cuban government following the revolution. Bacardi later bought that brand from the original owners, the Arechabala family, and in partnership with the French company Pernod Ricard, the Cuban government sells its Havana Club products internationally - except in the United States and its territories. Bacardi created their Real Havana Club rum brand based on the original recipe from the Arechabala family, which they now manufacture in Puerto Rico, and sell in the United States.
Clearly, the Bacardi family has proven they can keep their business going, through all kinds of challenges. As a salute to that spirit, we raise a glass of today’s Drink Of The Day, a Bacardi Cocktail.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink:
