BACARDI SELECT RUM
Size: 750ML

Producer Notes: 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. Don Facundo, a wine merchant, emigrated from Catalonia to Cuba in the early 19th century. During this period, rum 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 to remove impurities. The rum was then aged in oak barrels. This 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. In the rafters of this building lived a family of fruit bats. Bats were a symbol of watchfulness and family harmony to the Spaniards, Bacardi chose the Bacardi Bat for its symbol and it has remained so to this day. In the 1890s, one son, Emilio, was exiled to Spanish North Africa for his anti-colonial activities, and his son was fighting as a Mambí, a Cuban independence rebel. Emilio's brothers kept the distillery going. It was during the subsequent American occupation of Cuba that the Cuba Libre and Daiquirí cocktails were invented, using Bacardi rum. That Cuba Libre is the most popular cocktail in the world now, but here in the states we know it simply as rum and Coke. In 1902, Emilio returned to a newly liberated Cuba to be chosen as Santiago de Cuba's first democratically elected mayor and went on to be a senator. When prohibition struck the U.S. in the 1920s, Emilio's son, Facundito, invited Americans to "come to Cuba and bathe in Bacardi rum." Many took him up in his offer, and Cuba became a popular tropical getaway for nearly 40 years. This all came to a screeching halt of course. On October 14, 1960, all the assets of Bacardi y Compañía were confiscated by the Castro regime. The family fled to San Juan, where they are still headquartered