In 1862, a Spanish wine merchant named Don Facundo Bacardí Massó purchased a small tin-roofed distillery in Santiago de Cuba. His ambition was to create a rum unlike any other — smooth, refined and approachable, rather than the rough, harsh spirit that was common at the time.

Don Facundo's innovations were revolutionary. He introduced a proprietary yeast strain that he cultivated from the wild yeasts of Cuba. He installed copper pot stills and later column stills for greater consistency. He aged his rum in American white oak barrels and filtered it through charcoal to achieve exceptional clarity and smoothness.

The result was BACARDÍ Carta Blanca — the world's first light rum. It was an immediate success, and BACARDÍ quickly became the most celebrated rum in Cuba and beyond.

The BACARDÍ bat — the company's iconic symbol — came about by accident. When Don Facundo's wife, Doña Amalia, discovered that thousands of fruit bats lived in the rafters of the distillery, she declared them a sign of good luck. The bat has been the symbol of BACARDÍ ever since.

Over the following decades, BACARDÍ survived earthquakes, fires, Prohibition and revolution. When Fidel Castro nationalised the company in 1960, the Bacardí family had already moved their operations to Puerto Rico, taking their yeast strain and their recipes with them.

Today, BACARDÍ is the world's most awarded rum brand and the largest privately held spirits company in the world. But the spirit of Don Facundo — innovation, quality and a passion for rum — lives on in every bottle.