Bacardi Heritage Narrative
Bacardi Heritage Narrative
Bacardi Heritage Narrative
NEXT
IT’S THE STORY
of how, back in 1862, ONE MAN
and kept going until
HAD A V I S I O N ,
HE M ADE IT A REA L ITY.
It’s the story of how E ACH GE NE R AT I ON
followed their passion for rum
in a different way and turned
a S MAL L C U BAN BUSINESS
into a world-famous name, and a
FAMILY-MADE RUM into the
NEXT
the story of
BACAR DÍ FAMILY
THE
T HE S T ORY OF
DON FACUNDO
BACARDÍ MASSÓ
FAT E DI DN’ T HAND D O N FACUND O BACARD Í MASSÓ AN
E AS Y S TAR T. . .
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF T H E
RUM
MAK I NG R UM I S A HOT, STICKY BUSINESS – PARTICULARLY IF
IT ’ S T HE F I R S T T I ME YO U’VE TRIED...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF T H E
BAT
I N T HE T R OP I CS, T HE ABUNDANCE O F FRUIT AND HEAT
ME ANS T HE R E AR E A LOT O F BATS...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
EL COCO
T HE BACAR DI COM PANY NOW HAS O FFICES IN CITIES ALL
AR OUND T HE WOR LD. BUT THEY ALL HAVE O NE THING...
REA D MORE
MOJITO
T HE S T ORY OF T H E
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
EMILIO’S
CIVIC DUTIES
CUBA’ S WAR S OF IND EPEND ENCE FINALLY END ED IN AUG UST
1898. E MI L I O BACARD Í MO REAU RETURNED FRO M PRISO N...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF T H E
AUTHENTIC
DAIQUIRI
I N HI GH S UMME R , C UBA G ETS HOT. BAD ENO UG H IF YO U’RE
OUT I N T HE OP E N, STILL PRETTY D RAINING IF YO U’RE...
REA D MORE
THE STORY OF
US
PROHIBITION
OCTOB E R 28T H, 1919, WAS A BAD DAY FO R G O O D TIMES. THE
US CONGR E S S PASSED THE VO LSTEAD ACT...
REA D MORE
THE STORY OF
PROHIBITION
US
TOURISM
PROHIBITION
I F YOU W E R E T R Y I NG TO MAKE ALCO HO L IN AMERICA,
P R OHI B IT I ON WAS CLEARLY TERRIBLE NEWS FO R BUSINESS...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
FACUNDITO
F OR DON FACUNDO’S G RAND SO N, ‘FACUND ITO ’, NOTHING
MAT T E R E D MOR E THAN THROWING A PARTY...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
BACARDI AND
MUSIC
T HE BACAR DÍ FAMILY ALWAYS KNEW THAT HOWEVER G O O D
T HE Y MADE T HE I R RUM TASTE, IT NEED ED TO BE ENJOYED...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
EL EDIFICIO
BACARDÍ
I N 1930, A NE W BAR O PENED IN HAVANA. D ESPITE BEING IN
T HE OF F I CE B UI L D ING O F AN INTERNATIO NAL CO MPANY...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF
INTERNATIONAL
EXPANSION
I N 1910, E NR I QUE SCHUEG – D O N FACUND O BACARD Í
MAS S Ó’ S S ON-I N-LAW, AND THE THIRD PRESID ENT O F...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF T H E
COMPANY’S
EXILE FROM CUBA
P E P Í N B OS CH WAS D O N FACUND O ’S G RAND SO N-IN-LAW.
AF T E R A DI F F I CULT 1940 S , CAUSED BY WO RLD WAR II...
REA D MORE
T HE S T ORY OF T H E
BACARDÍ
FAMILY
MOR E T HAN 150 Y E ARS AND EIG HT G ENERATIO NS LATER,
BACAR DI I S S T I L L A FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS...
REA D MORE
C H APT ER 1
T H E S T O RY O F
DON FACUNDO
BACARDÍ MASSÓ
FATE DIDN’T HAND DON FACUNDO BACARDÍ
MASSÓ AN EASY START.
Don Facundo travelled from his birthplace of Sitges, Spain to work with his
brothers in Santiago de Cuba. There he saved long and hard while working in
their general store. Eventually in 1844, Don Facundo was able to establish a
mercantile shop of his own.
Less than a decade later, disaster struck. In 1852, an earthquake tore through
the city, wrecking churches and triggering landslides. The earthquake,
aftershocks, and subsequent cholera outbreak claimed the lives of one in
three inhabitants of Santiago de Cuba, including Don Facundo’s son Juan
and daughter María.
Devastated, Don Facundo fled to Spain to keep his family safe. When he
returned to Cuba, the store that he had saved so long to create was looted,
and with economic conditions at rock bottom, he had no choice but to file
for bankruptcy.
But for Don Facundo in this darkest of times, there was an opportunity.
In the mid-19th century rum was viewed as nothing more than a cheap,
sugary firewater, but Don Facundo knew it could be much, much more than
this. With bankruptcy bringing a chance for a fresh start, there was nothing
to stop him pursuing his passion.
And finally, in 1862, he was ready to unveil the drink that he had strived for.
Don Facundo’s light-bodied, refined rum was the product of the secret recipe
and rum-making process that he perfected over ten years.
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C H AP T ER 2
T H E S T O RY O F T H E
RUM
MAKING RUM IS A HOT, STICKY BUSINESS –
PARTICULARLY IF IT’S THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE TRIED.
AND IT TAKES A LONG TIME TO GET IT RIGHT.
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C H AP T ER 3
T H E S T O RY O F T H E
BAT
IN T H E T R OP I C S, THE ABUNDANCE OF FRUIT AND HEAT
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C H AP T ER 4
T H E S T O RY O F
EL COCO
THE BACARDI COMPANY NOW HAS OFFI CES I N CIT I ES
I N C O M M O N – W H E RE V E R IT ’ S B A SED, YOU’LL FI ND A
COCONUT PALM.
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C H APT ER 5
T H E S T O RY O F T H E
MOJITO
N EC ESSITY IS TH E MOTHER OF INVENTION –
PAR T I C U LARLY WH E N YO U ’ RE SAIL I NG AR OUND T HE WOR LD W IT H
T H E C RU D E F O RE RUNNER OF RUM.
Fast-forward to the 19th century and people started to think that there
might be something worth saving from the old recipe. Nobody wanted to
continue drinking like a desperate sailor, but the same ingredients – mixed
with a very different, charcoal-filtered rum – could create something
completely new. The hunch paid off and the mojito was born – some
of the earliest surviving recipes for the cocktail list BACARDÍ as the
crucial ingredient.
By 1930 and the prohibition era, the drink was in its heyday. For those
travellers escaping America and prohibition, the mojito was the taste of
liberation. It remains just as popular today, and all over the world the
BACARDÍ mojito is the standard by which all other mojitos are judged.
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C H AP T ER 6
T H E S T O RY O F
EMILIO BACARDI’S
FIGHT FOR
CUBAN INDEPENDENCE
THE BACARDÍ FAMILY HISTORY IS ROOTED FIRMLY IN
THE FIELDS AND STREETS OF CUBA. AS THE FIRST MEMBER
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C H AP T ER 7
T H E S T O RY O F
EMILIO’S
CIVIC DUTIES
CUBA’S WARS OF INDEPENDENCE FI NALLY ENDED I N
AU GUS T 18 9 8 . E M IL IO BACARD Í M O R EAU R ET UR NED FR OM P R I S ON
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C H APT ER 8
T H E S T O RY O F
THE
CUBA LIBRE
S O ME CO CKTAILS ARE NAMED AFTER THE BARMAN WHO INVENTED
THEM, OR THE HOTEL WHERE THEY WERE FIRST POURED. NOT MANY
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C H APT ER 9
T H E S T O RY O F T H E
AUTHENTIC
DAIQUIRI
IN HIGH SUMMER, CUBA GETS HOT. BAD ENOUGH
IF YOU’RE OUT IN THE OPEN, STILL PRETTY DRAINING IF
E N J OY I N G A R E F R E S H I N G C U B A L I B R E
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C H APT ER 1 0
THE STORY OF
US PROHIBITION
C R AT E S O F B A C A R D Í R U M
Selling the rum wasn’t an option, but destroying it was just wrong. It was
Don Facundo’s son-in-law Enrique Schueg who came up with a solution.
As boss of Bacardi, Schueg announced the sale of 60,000 shares in the
BACARDÍ U.S. Bottling Company. Following this announcement the
company was closed down with each shareholder given one case of rum per
share by way of compensation. The new shareholders were happy, Schueg
had spread the word about BACARDÍ, and not a drop had been wasted.
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C H APT ER 1 1
THE STORY OF
PROHIBITION
TOURISM
I F Y O U W ER E T RYIN G TO MAKE ALCOHOL IN AMERICA,
PROHIBITION WAS CLEARLY TERRIBLE NEWS FOR BUSINESS. BUT IF
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C H APT ER 1 2
T H E S T O RY O F
FACUNDITO
FOR DON FAC U N D O ’ S G RAN D SO N, ‘FACUNDITO’, NOT HI NG
BA C A R D Í R UM F OR EVERYO NE.
HIS EPITAPH
IN THE NEW YORK
TIMES SUMMED HIM UP:
‘ONE OF THE MOST
POPULAR MEN
IN CUBA.’
If the house got too full, they’d just open the gates and let the party spill out
onto the streets. And if anyone couldn’t make it, the party could come to them.
The most popular musicians of the day (some personal friends of Facundito) were
put in an open top car and driven around the city, playing to the crowds.
Sadly, Facundito died young, but his epitaph in The New York Times summed
him up: ‘One of the most popular men in Cuba.’
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C H APT ER 1 3
T H E S T O RY O F
BACARDÍ AND
MUSIC
In the 1940s and ‘50s, this was delivered to the island’s homes and bars
via the radio. And, knowing what their listeners liked, the CMQ station
named a hugely popular program dedicated to the best new music of the
day: The BACARDÍ Hour.
More than 150 years later, the Bacardi company continues to be a patron
of the arts, supporting emerging artists in music talent with a number of
initiatives.
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C H AP T ER 1 4
T H E S T O RY O F
EL EDIFICIO
BACARDÍ
I N 1 93 0, A N E W BAR O PE N E D IN H AVANA . DESPITE BEING I N T HE
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C H AP T ER 1 5
T H E S T O RY O F
INTERNATIONAL
EXPANSION
I N 1 91 0, EN R IQUE S C HUEG – DON FACUNDO BACAR DÍ
S ET T IN G U P SH O P IN TH E HEART OF MANHATTAN.
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C H APT ER 1 6
T H E S T O RY O F T H E
COMPANY’S
EXILE FROM CUBA
PEPÍN BOSCH WAS DON FACUNDO’S GRANDSON-IN-LAW.
The Bacardi Cuban assets were put in government hands; army officers headed
to the Havana headquarters with an expropriation document to seize the
company’s assets.
However, the building the army arrived at was actually just the sales office. The
real office was on the other side of the country in Santiago de Cuba. This didn’t
save the Bacardi company from being seized, but the mistake did give the
BACARDÍ Master Blenders sufficient time to destroy the secret yeast strain
used to make BACARDÍ rum. The family kept the recipe, but lost almost
everything else – distilleries, breweries, offices, warehouses, ageing rum stocks,
and even their family homes. All of their assets in Cuba were illegally confis-
cated without compensation by the Revolutionary government, and the family
went into exile.
But Pepin Bosch came to the rescue. It turned out that back in the 1950s he
had registered the BACARDÍ trademark outside of Cuba. So, having already
opened up in other countries, Bacardi could legally continue to produce their
rum worldwide. For thirty years these companies he had registered abroad
were beyond the reach of the Cuban government, and could carry on making
rum, until they were reunited into one company in the early 1990s. Foresight,
planning – and a healthy dose of luck – all combined to make Pepín Bosch the
company’s savior.
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C H AP T ER 1 7
T H E S T O RY O F T H E
BACARDÍ
FAMILY
M O R E T H A N 1 5 0 Y EARS AND
EIGHT GENERATIONS LATER , BACAR DI I S S T I LL A
The project that Don Facundo BacardíMassó started in a small tin roof
distillery in Santiago de Cuba has taken the ideas and passions of its founding
family worldwide. But under current chairman Facundo L. Bacardi – the
great-great grandson of founder Don Facundo Bacardí Massó – much remains
the same: the signature strain of yeast is still in use; the family recipe is still a
closely guarded secret; and the spirit which saw Bacardi through every
challenge is still in every bottle of rum that it makes.
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