S6E1: 164 Years of BACARDÍ: Stories from the Archives of the World’s Most-Awarded Rum Brand

Transcript:

Jason Dressel  00:11

Today on the History Factory podcast. Rachel Guerin, heritage curator at Bacardi.

Jason Dressel  00:23

I’m Jason Dressel, and welcome to a new season of the History Factory Podcast, the podcast at the intersection of business and history. This season, we have a number of guests lined up from iconic brands, authors of new books and thought leaders. We will cover a wide array of topics this season, and today we are going to talk all things Bacardi with Rachel Guerin. It is February 4th, which is Founders Day at Bacardi. The company was founded in Cuba in 1862. It’s been a really cold winter, so hopefully today’s conversation will be a fun diversion and inspire you to maybe make a daiquiri tonight or maybe even have tropical cocktail theme for your upcoming Super Bowl party.

Jason Dressel  01:05

Fun fact, Bacardi is actually still family held. Rachel is, in fact, a sixth generation Bacardi family member. She oversees the Bacardi archives, a collection of over 20,000 historical artifacts in Miami that showcases and chronicles the 164-year history of the company, the brand and the family. So let’s dive into our conversation about the history of the world’s most awarded rum brand, the stories of the company’s early days in Cuba, its remarkable pivot during the Revolution, as well as the cocktail culture Bacardi helped create and the people who built what today is a global spirits company with over 200 brands in its portfolio.

Jason Dressel  01:54

Rachel Guerin, welcome to the History Factory podcast. Happy Founders Day.

Rachel Guerin  01:58

Thank you, Jason. Happy Founders Day.

Jason Dressel  02:01

I wish I was down there with you in South Florida.

Rachel Guerin  02:04

It is sunny and beautiful. Wish you were here, too.

Jason Dressel  02:06

Let’s start, I guess, in the spirit of a founder’s day, what is the origin story of Bacardi? How was how was it founded?

Rachel Guerin  02:13

Believe it or not, our story goes back seven generations. Now, I can’t believe seven generations, and it actually begins with my great, great, great grandfather, Facundo Bacardí Massó. Facundo was a man who lived a very humble life in Cuba, and he really only had the desire to leave something behind for his family and really make a legacy for Bacardi is in Cuba. He was actually born in Spain, in Catalonia, and he was just a teenager when he emigrated to Cuba in 1830. He was in search for a better life there. He opened a really small, good shop. He was kind of known as the guy who could get you a little bit of anything. He could import wines from Europe. He even sold basic household goods. But it was in this phase of his life that he met Amalia and he began to grow their small family. Everything changed for Facndo and Amalia in 1852 when a series of really terrible earthquakes hit Santiago and it they quite literally rocked the city in every sense of the word. They crumbled buildings. They wrecked homes. I mean, it totally sent the city into chaos. Unfortunately, that meant diseases like cholera ran rampant. It, you know, of course, just threw the city into further turmoil, and it claimed the lives of many, including Facundo and Amalia’s two youngest children. With so many left destitute of course that meant many could not pay back their debts. That was the last of their concerns. So records actually found in our archives show that Facundo had to declare bankruptcy on his first business in 1854 when, you know, he was already a middle aged man. He had built this business from the ground up. He was a really smart guy, though, and he was incredibly resilient. So he was nowhere near finished.

Rachel Guerin  03:24

All that time that he was talking to those consumers and, you know, his local community. He was looking for an opportunity to make something that was truly Cuban and very authentic, and rum being, you know, obviously almost viewed as like a byproduct of the sugar cane industry, felt like a really interesting opportunity to him, You know, to make something really special and unique. So he took about 10 years to really master every step of the run making process, and eventually he created what we know as Bacardi Superior. Depending on where you are in the world, you might notice Bacardi Carta Blanca. And a little he saved up a little bit of money, and in time, he opened our first distillery on February 4, 1862. So that’s our founding date, and we still celebrate every February 4th Facundo and his legacy.

Jason Dressel  04:45

So that’s an amazing storage the lead up to founding the company. What were some of the kind of key drivers for the success? What was, I mean, as it an overnight success? Did it take years or decades of grinding away. What does Bacardi look like in 19th century Cuba?

Rachel Guerin  05:05

It certainly was a labor of love. I mean, I think a lot of folks are surprised to hear, especially when they look through our archives and they you know, so many know the story of Bacardi as being this incredibly successful rum brand. But it did not start that way. It was. It was very challenging for Facundo. And, you know, even his children’s generation in Cuba. So much of that was economic challenges, of course, socially, I mean, there was war after war going on. They had really limited funds. You know, it was really Facundo, and by the time his boys were a little bit older that were manning this distillery for so many years just trying to spread the word of Bacardi locally in Cuba in order for it to become, you know, this, this international brand. It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

Rachel Guerin  05:50

So it was actually really thanks to the world fairs and all the interna… international expositions that people used to host back in the 1800s. I mean, I always say, like, long before we had social media and all these influencers who could tell you the hottest things to buy, people actually had to go to these fairs, to these world fairs, and these showcases, and all of these amazing cities like Paris and Philadelphia and Havana and Barcelona, and they would see from the inventors like Thomas Edison and all these incredible people, what the latest greatest products were. Right next to the unveiling of the Eiffel Tower at one of these events, and Heinz ketchup, and as I mentioned, Thomas Edison’s luminous light bulb, next to all these amazing inventions, was a booth for Bacardi rum, where the Bacardis were there showcasing Bacardi Superior, and we were winning gold medals for innovation and spirits. So of course, we put those on our label, and that was really like, you know, the pride they must have felt. It was really a certificate of quality. And today, when you look at a bottle of Bacardi, you’re still going to see all of those gold medals. I keep them in the archives. They’re some of my most favorite treasures to look at, and that’s really where it began. You know, the publicity that showcase the quality and the consistency of Bacardi rum just how inventive i was back in the day today. We’re still the world’s most awarded rum, and we have a thousand of those medals and counting.

Jason Dressel  07:15

So that raises a really interesting point, which is what was sort of the state of rum when Bacardi was founded. Obviously, when folks to your point, think about sort of the flagship brand, it’s it’s a light rum. Was that unusual? What was sort of distinct about Bacardi rum, and maybe, how did it change over the years? Or how did it maybe influence the the evolution of of the rum industry and the spirit itself

Rachel Guerin  07:47

Back in the 1800s I mean, man, rum was, you know, made from molasses. It was nicknamed grog or fire water. You know, these really harsh names, because that’s essentially what it was. It was not really viewed as anything other than just… we have all this extra molasses. What are we going to do with it? We’ll distill it into some rum. It was sometimes even a safe alternative to water back in the day, and it was just really harsh. Certainly did not mix in cocktails. I mean, this is at a time before cocktails were really even a term, before that was really… You know, cocktails were really just starting to come into play around the 1860s about the same time. And as you can imagine, I mean, think of all the Europeans and the Americans, and I mean, even anywhere you were, they were used to aged whiskeys, Cognacs, things that had full body and were certainly, you know, sippable on their own, but they were much more refined, much more palatable, much more smooth, and just better quality. And I think that’s why Facundo saw that this really was an opportunity to change the game, and he did that in four pretty interesting ways.

Rachel Guerin  08:54

The first, I’m always fascinated by this. He decided, you know, like any distillation for any spirit, yeast, is incredibly important. We always say it’s like the thumbprint. It’s the DNA that makes a spirit taste a certain way. It gives it this irreplaceable flavor profile that cannot be replicated. He decided to harvest his own from the sugar cane just out back in the distillery to make and find you know that one yeast grain that he really liked that gave him that right flavor. He then introduced something called our parallel distillation process. So this think of it as creating two different distillates. Instead of just making one batch of rum and saying, there you go, pop it in a barrel. He decided to make two, one that was really robust and fiery and a little bit more flavorful and had all these amazing components to it, and one that was much more elegant and refined and sort of more typical of what you would associate with Bacardi Superior. If he blended the two together, not only could he make Bacardi the rum of his dreams, but he could create a whole line of rums, and that’s exactly what he did.

Rachel Guerin  09:57

He was the first to barrel age and charred American oak casts ,too. So though, you know, we always think of like Pirates of the Caribbean and people, you know, carrying their rums and their waters and all of their liquids around and casks, he realized that just like wine, just like you know, aged brandies or other spirits, casks can impart a really particular flavor. They can mellow the spirit out, you know, create all those amazing charred flavors that we all look for and spirits that we enjoy. But of course, take out all the unwanted parts as well, and then charcoal filtration. I mean, this is something I think that was pretty revolutionary back in the day, to remove all that unwanted coloring, all those esters, all those flavors that just were not letting his rum shine through. So ultimately, I mean, we still do this process today. It’s been 164 years, and all that information that Facundo had, he passed down to every single master blender. It’s this unbroken chain of knowledge. So Troy, our global master blender today, he is really working the same way, and hearing from those that came before him, all of these, you know, the secrets of rum making, and it’s really cool. It definitely changed the game back in the day.

Jason Dressel  11:07

So that’s great. So so the company is obviously growing. I presumably the the reputation of of rum as a category is is improving. The brand is getting built locally, I would assume, based on knowing what I know of Bacardi and obviously of Cuba. Then as we sort of move into the 20th century, you have that kind of sort of confluence of the 1920s more of the popularity of of cocktails. Obviously, a growing middle class in the United States, more travel to Cuba. And then, of course, with, you know, what’s happening in the states with the prohibition, what’s that kind of period look like? That sort of, you know, kind of early to, sort of mid 20th century for Bacardi is it’s in probably, you know, reaching, I’m assuming maybe, like, third, third generation.

Rachel Guerin  12:05

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, the, it’s funny, the literal turn of the 20th century is when we really start to see things pick up. So at this point in time, right around the 1900s we’ve got the next generation, Emilio Facundo Jr, you know, the next generation really leading the business. And they knew, I think, they took their father’s original recipe, but they knew that in order to be successful long term, they needed to think bigger, think globally. And thankfully, funny enough, the one thing that I think really triggered this moment of success for Bacardi in Cuba was Prohibition in the United States. So 1920 very early in the year, the U.S. goes dry. Fine for us, because we were based in Santiago de Cuba. So we had the ability to keep making rum. We could sell it locally. We could still sell it to other places, but the U.S., it was a massive, massive market. So like you, like you said, this was an opportunity for us, if anything, we decided, you know, let’s market to the American consumer. We made these amazing postcard advertisements that were almost like these little social media posts saying, come to the island of Cuba. Come experience the mojito for the first time, the daiquiri, the Cuba Libre. These were unheard of cocktails. Bacardi was really unheard of before Prohibition, but all of these global influencers and travelers came. They got to make their own cocktails. They got to sit them under the Caribbean sun. I mean, how amazing. Of course, they wrote home and told all their friends about it. And when they took these cocktails and some Bacardi home with them, once Prohibition ended, it really was, I mean, it was a, we were even entered into the dictionary as a, as a, as a proper noun, because Bacardi was so synonymous with rum at that point. That’s really when we really start to see, I mean, the prosperity of the company, some global expansion. You know, we started opening different distillery sites, like our distillery in Puerto Rico, where we’re still producing Bacardi rum to this day.

Rachel Guerin  13:59

And one of my favorite things in the archive is this collection. It must consist of like four to 5000 photos. There was a guy named Pappy Valiente, who was kind of like our first brand ambassador in Cuba, and his job was just to stand at the bottom of the Pan Am airline runway in Havana with fresh daiquiris in hand and show to Americans like all of the things that the island had to offer. He would show them how to make the cocktails at this amazing Art Deco bar in the Bacardi building in downtown Havana. And they would leave these photos and say, “Thank you, Pappy, for the amazing cocktails.” And I mean, they’re so iconic. It’s like the flapper style, very Art Deco, but you can really see how happy people were to get to experience that and really say thank you. And the fact that we have those in our archive, they are one of my favorite photo collections to look through.

Jason Dressel  14:51

That’s awesome. And then, of course, as we move into the 1950s one of the most significant chapters of course in Bacardi history, which is pretty well known, but I can’t wait to hear your perspective on it is, you know, with the revolution in Cuba. Bacardi, I assume, is probably the most successful, largest business in Cuba at that point, certainly probably the most recognizable brand globally, and very synonymous with with kind of what Cuban… Cuba stands for and is kind of represented internationally. So what happens with Bacardi during the revolution, and ultimately, how it how it relocates?

Rachel Guerin  15:35

I don’t even think for one moment that our family is not grateful for the foresight and the events that were leading up to the Cuban revolution. We really owe all of that to our ancestors back in the 1950s some of whom are still with us to tell the tale of what personally happened to them, but we owe where we are today to a couple individuals, but namely a gentleman named Pepin Bosch, who was our president of the company back in 1958. He was the one that witnessed firsthand some tremors of extreme political change. It scared him, and he decided, back then, best to safeguard our business, we need to move our proprietary information, like the bat trademark, our name, our recipes, all of those things. We need to take them out of the grasp of Cuba. And that proved to be, obviously very incredible foresight, since just a couple years later, the Revolution happened in 1960 in October. And there’s a really incredible story from some family members who woke up in Cuba that day. They opened their newspapers, they flicked on their radio, and they heard that Bacardi, alongside hundreds of other businesses, was being nationalized, essentially illegally confiscated, without any kind of money, any kind of conversation, and there was just no questions asked. I mean, talk about your worst nightmare. This is for Bacardi so close to almost 100 years, but I mean, to build this business from the ground up, to survive war after war, I mean, all of this political change, it was nothing less than a dagger in the heart. But because our information was protected, you know, and a majority of that physical rum making was still placed in Santiago, this was a huge, huge loss. I mean, so many of them had to essentially leave Cuba, flee in exile and start over.

Rachel Guerin  17:26

Crazy enough though, there’s this really interesting story about, you know, some things were kind of going our way, even through this, this really awful situation. The soldiers who actually showed up in person to deliver these, like confiscation papers, essentially to say, hand over all of your business to us. They went to the wrong place. They went to the wrong city. They showed up at the Bacardi building in Havana, Cuba, which was this amazing art deco building that I just mentioned, but it wasn’t our actual headquarters. We weren’t making any rum there. We just had, like, small offices, and we were, you know, leasing it out to some other local companies. And the Bacardi person on site was like, “I’m sorry, but you’re in the wrong place. Santiago is where we’re based.” And he immediately ran, called up the Santiago family and the people there, and he said they are coming destroy everything. And at the time, it was a clear, clear day’s travel, you know, to get across the island from Havana to the other end to Santiago, which was in the east. So in that time, we destroyed the yeast. They destroyed any of the rum that they could. They took all of the records, any information essentially, they thought that they could get out of there, because they knew that those soldiers were coming for it all. So it’s, it’s not, it was definitely heartbreaking. But I always say that, you know, we had a couple things that sort of fell into place for us to ensure that we could do what we could do to protect our people and our business.

Rachel Guerin  18:52

Like I said. I mean, this was, this was one of the most hardest and devastating times for our family. I mean, imagine having everything that you worked for, all your possessions, your businesses, all just taken in the blink of an eye. And though we’re one of the more well known stories for this to happen to unfortunately, it happened to thousands. So we were we were really lucky that we had Puerto Rico in place, and we had these amazing sites and that Bermuda where we’re headquartered today, opened their arms out to us, but still an incredibly painful time. And it was bittersweet, because this was the last time so much of our family was really together in one place, if you think about it.

Jason Dressel  19:29

Yeah, and I can’t imagine how I mean the company was so synonymous with its location, and it was such a part of its identity. And I know just from my experience with History Factory, working with Bacardi on and off over many years, that there’s still this very strong cultural and identity connection to Cuba, even though you haven’t formally been there in, you know, over 60 years. But back then, it’s like, I can’t imagine what the impact must have been on the family, on executives, on employees, because presumably, a lot of people that work for the company weren’t able to move out, right?

Rachel Guerin  20:09

Yeah, I mean, many, many did actually, they left, you know, over the next year or two, in exile, and Pepin, you know, Pepin Bosch was really the guy that gave them a lifeline by saying, let’s keep this business alive. This is the one thing that we have elsewhere in the world. There’s this incredible memo that he, he, I think he, he spoke at a following event, you know, just months after this, and he said, We are not finished. Bacardi is still alive. And he sent a lot of the the folks from Cuba who were looking for a place to essentially rebuild, I mean, also with their families to different countries, like Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, all these other places we were looking to rebuild and come back. And that that was very, very hard. I mean, starting over in a new place as an individual is one thing, but as a family, and certainly as a family that was just more disconnected than ever, but we still had that one common goal. And I think that’s what really set the fire a light, so to speak. And they were, they were so determined to come back stronger than ever. And by 1979 that was really what we did. Bacardi had come back and then some. It was the number one selling premium spirit in the world.

Jason Dressel  21:23

Yeah, amazing. And like, like, a lot of iconic brands, you know, when I think about Bacardi’s history and heritage, there’s these kind of core stories that are so well established and told, obviously, that story during the Revolution, the story of the founding, some of those stories you were talking about in terms of, kind of some of the romance of the of the Prohibition era. And oftentimes there’s less of those kinds of stories from the more modern era. So as you think about sort of the more modern era, the 21st century history of Bacardi, what are some of those stories that stand out?

Rachel Guerin  22:03

I think it’s so cool. And so many people, when they come through their archive and they hear the story, they’re really surprised that not only are we still family owned after 164 years, so there’s still family at the helm, and it’s, it’s really every you know, it’s part of our DNA, it is part of everything that we do, but that for 130 of those years, give or take, we were largely just a one brand business. So it was really only as recent as the 1990s when we started to add some of these other brands, you know, into the realm that started with Martini and Rossi in 1993, but I was even lucky, you know, to experience more recently when we acquired full ownership of Patrón Tequila in 2018. So you know, to be candid, I’m a little bit biased, because I love the fact that we are adding and that we get to welcome these other families and these other brands that have equally as amazing origin stories. Maybe not 164 years old. Some of them like Martini they do, but the fact that they get to come into our archive and be a part of our story, I think it just makes it all so special. It really further re-instills, like the values that this company and my family have, and it makes us really, really proud that we get to do this.

Rachel Guerin  23:18

I mean, so we have over 200 brands in our portfolio today, and I would say, like, I can’t even count, how many have such a cool history. They have amazing founders. It’s really a privilege that we all get to work together. I mean, I work with seven other individuals just on heritage alone in this company. So from our perspective, it feels, you know, there’s always something new and something exciting going on, new products, new bottles. I mean, the amount of bottles of spirits that we’ve brought into our archive in the last 30 years is more than I could count. But it’s really cool day in and day out, I think, to get to see how some of these, these spirits brands, are changing.

Jason Dressel  23:59

Yeah. Well, and to your point, probably few people realize that a that Bacardi is not just a branded house, it truly is a house of brands, as well as the number of brands you have in that portfolio. And with respect to how you and your colleagues serve all of these brands with the archives, what does that look like? What does that look like on a day to day basis, in terms of what your kind of internal customers are coming to with respect to how they’re using the history and the heritage and the archives of these brands?

Rachel Guerin  24:38

I always tell people at Bacardi, whether they’re new or they’ve been around for a while, that first and foremost our archives are they’re really a resource for them. So I always say that our collections are like a library of all things Bacardi, that anything and everything that you can think of that’s touched Bacardi or maybe one of our other brands, chances are we have it in our archives. So our past, our present, and the fun part is the fact that it’s also inspiration for the future. So though, you know, our collection began just about 30 years ago. It’s really cool that we get to see teams come in today, some of our ambassadors who want to learn a little bit more about cocktail history, our legal team who’s looking to protect the bat logo, or maybe some trademark claims. Or our, you know, research and development team who are looking to make the next version of Bacardi, or, you know, some new rum or some new vodka… they come to our archives to see what we’ve done in the past be inspired by it, or maybe just reference, you know, our old advertisements some of our records, hear the voices of our founders written down in some of the, you know, their letters and documentations. So it’s, it’s such a great resource on any given day. You know, we do a lot of research into, you know, some of our old claims, the vintage cocktail book collection that we have, which is so, so fun to see, sort of how people were mixing our spirits and other mixers all throughout time. But, you know, I give a lot of presentations, a lot of tours. It’s really fun for people to come through and just see how much and how cool and how how rich our collections are. I mean, anything that you can think of. We even have some really great point of sale and merchandise from, you know, the ’80s and the ’90s. I have a little stuffed bat, like what was once, I think a real live, a live bat named Marcy. And people love to take pictures. It’s a really, really cool experience. And I think they get to feel like this is really a resource for them to be better at their role.

Jason Dressel  26:38

Bat taxidermy may be a first on this podcast. So well well done, Rachel.

Rachel Guerin  26:42

It is quite interesting to take care of a taxidermy bat. I’ll put it that way. I feel like I have to whip out my I need, might need to reach out to some of you folks to figure out how to preserve it.

Jason Dressel  26:54

Yeah, that’s that that’s different. And last question, a great question to ask of the Bacardi archivist. So you’re at a bar and you have one story that you get to tell a new friend at the bar about Bacardi that really sort of captures the essence of the brand you have, like a go to favorite story that you love to tell.

Rachel Guerin  27:16

How do I tell just one? Okay, so first and foremost, if you find me at the bar. Chances are, of course, I’m drinking something Bacardi, of course, but it’s very likely that’s going to be a Bacardi daiquiri And it’s my favorite story, because it was first invented 128 years ago now, which is, which is crazy to say. A lot of people probably think of you know the I hate to say it, but when they hear daiquiri, they think strawberry frozen, you know, some super sugary drink. But as cocktail historians and Bacardi folks know that you’re going to, if you hear daiquiri, you’re going to think of one of the most iconic cocktails of all time. It’s like the OG rum daiquiri, the hand-shaken Bacardi daiquiri. And it was actually an American that we owe this one to. He was based in Cuba. He was a mining a mine mining engineer, nonetheless. And as you can imagine, it was incredibly hot, and he had just found Bacardi rum. He had just discovered it, and he was looking for a way to cool off, essentially. So he whipped up a little bit of Bacardi, some fresh lime juice, which is local to the island, sugar and ice, and he made, I think, kind of on accident, one of the most iconic drinks of all time. And of course, when he was looking for a name for it, what else to call it than the place where it was born, in Daiquiri, Cuba. So in the years that followed, he took this cocktail all over. And today, I think it’s like my favorite story to tell when I’m making it for someone, but it’s also my test. I’m like this is the cost. So when I go out, if a bartender makes me an amazing daiquiri, like, I’m sold for life. I mean, I think it’s like the ultimate treat, and definitely a recipe to master for friends and family. So I’m going to be raising one this year for Founders Day. Might have two. It’s definitely my favorite, but come sit by me at the bar. I promise I won’t talk. Your ear off the whole time, but there’s so many more stories to tell. And thank you for having me on the podcast.

Jason Dressel  29:12

Yeah, of course. And anything to plug anywhere that people should go to learn more about Bacardi history? I can say certainly, also, if you’re in Puerto Rico, you should absolutely go to the visitor center outside of San Juan as well.

Rachel Guerin  29:27

Yes, please do. Casa Bacardi in San Juan is so fun. It is the largest premium rum distillery in the world. They’re open 365 days a year. I think they are some of the coolest people. And you really get to see the production process of Bacardi from start to finish, and some amazing cocktails. Follow Bacardi Limited on social media, so we’re on Instagram and LinkedIn. I post lots of fun heritage content. You can get to know the story a little bit more and see what Bacardi is up to. And occasionally I make an appearance on there too as well, where you’ll get to see a little bit more into our archives. So stay tuned for more news. Awesome.

Jason Dressel  30:01

Well, Rachel, thanks for joining us and happy Founders Day.

Rachel Guerin  30:04

Thank you, Jason, happy Founders Day.

Jason Dressel  30:10

Thanks again to Rachel Guerin. Thanks to all of you for listening to the history factory podcast. Be well, stay safe, and we’ll be back soon with a new episode.