The Story of Bacardi Rum: From Cuba to the World

What began as a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba in 1862 grew into one of the most recognized spirits brands on the planet — and its journey is inseparable from the political upheavals of the 20th century.

Don Facundo Bacardí Massó founded the company after developing a smoother, more refined rum-making process, using charcoal filtering and a specific strain of yeast that set his product apart from the harsher rums common at the time. For nearly a century, Bacardi remained closely tied to Cuban identity, growing alongside the island's economy and becoming a fixture of Cuban culture.

That changed after the Cuban Revolution. When Fidel Castro's government nationalized private industry in 1960, the Bacardi family's Cuban assets, including the original distillery, were seized by the state. The family, however, had already begun expanding operations abroad, and this foresight allowed the company to survive the loss of its homeland base.

Puerto Rico became a new center of production, with the company establishing what would become one of the largest rum distilleries in the world in Cataño. Miami, meanwhile, emerged as a hub for the exiled Bacardi family and many other Cuban business owners who rebuilt their lives and enterprises in South Florida after the revolution. The city's large Cuban-American community helped cement Bacardi's continued cultural connection to Cuban heritage, even as the company's legal and physical presence in Cuba ended.

From these new bases, Bacardi expanded aggressively into international markets over the following decades, becoming a global brand sold in more than 150 countries. Today, it remains one of the largest privately held, family-owned spirits companies in the world — a legacy shaped as much by resilience and reinvention as by rum-making itself.

The story of Bacardi endures locally too, as descendants of Cuban exile families across South Florida continue to share family histories tied to the brand's dramatic departure from the island and its second life abroad.