Bacardi

:This article is about an enterprise. For article about Bacardi Island, see that article. more...

Bacardi is the world's largest privately held, family-owned spirits company; a producer of rums, including Bacardi Superior and Bacardi 151. The company sells in excess of 240 million bottles per year in 170 countries. The business is the fourth largest spirits company in the world: sales in 2000 were $2.7 billion USD. A number of planned stock market flotations have collapsed, the last in 2000.

History

Originally founded by Don Facundo Bacardi Masso in 1862 in Santiago de Cuba, Bacardi is headquartered today in Hamilton, Bermuda, with most production in Puerto Rico. The distillery is part of the American Whiskey Trail.

Don Facundo, a wine merchant, emigrated from Catalonia to Cuba in the early 19th century. During this period, rum was cheaply made and not considered a refined drink, one rarely sold in upscale taverns. Don Facundo began attempting to "tame" rum. After experimenting with several techniques he hit upon filtering the rum through charcoal, which removed impurities. In addition to this Facundo aged the rum in oak barrels, which had the effect of "mellowing" the drink.

Moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavor, he and his brother José set up shop in a small distillery on February 4, 1862. Their first copper and cast iron still produced 35 barrels of fermented molasses per day. In the rafters of this building lived fruit bats. Hence, the Bacardi bat logo.

Read more at Wikipedia.org