BACARDI Superior rum continues to be the standard bearer of BACARDI globally, recognized the world over as the dynamic and free-spirited party drink.
On February 4, 1862, Don Facundo Bacardi Masso purchased the first BACARDI rum distillery on El Matadero Street, in the town of Santiago de Cuba, for 3.500 pesos. He proceeded to change the manufacture of rum, forever.
Working long hours in tropical heat, Don Facundo learned every step of the process and added new ones of his own.
He began with high quality sugarcane molasses, diluted with water to form a mash. From surrounding sugar cane fields, he took a strain of yeast that he used to ferment the mash for 30 hours.
After much experimentation, he started new fermentation cycles using a proprietary yeast strain called "levadura". This strain of yeast continues to be used to this day.
In order to create a lighter product, Don Facundo distilled the spirit several times. However, his solution was revolutionary in the production of rum: charcoal-mellowing filtration. Using select tropical woods and coconut shells, he created charcoal that would filter the distillate drop by drop to remove even the slightest impurity, giving his rums an unparalleled smoothness.
Remembering that rums become smoother the longer they stay inside the barrel, Don Facundo became the first rum producer to purposely age his rums in small mature oak casks.
He charred the barrels inside to deliver a deeper amber color for Carta de Oro (BACARDI Gold), and aged them for two years. To produce the lighter color of Superior (BACARDI), he left them uncharred and aged them for a year. Superior was then charcoal-filtered again to remove its color, for maximum mixability.
Using different distillates, he then blended his rums into different expressions that we still enjoy today, BACARDI, aged for one year and BACARDI Gold/Oro aged for up to two years.
Seven generations of Don Facundo's descendants have sustained his innovative spirit to produce BACARDI, one of the most awarded rums in the world.
