THE CATHEDRAL OF
RUM
In front of the original
Bacardi factory in Santiago de Cuba sits a small patch of earth
where, four decades ago, a 98 year old palm once stood…
Ian Buxton
visits the new Bacardi Visitor Centre in Puerto Rico.
Today, long after the palm has
withered and died, a faithful replica is preserved in Bacardi’s new
‘brand home’, the Casa Bacardi. What does it mean? Well, read on.
The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico,
a popular playground of international tourists, is also well-known
for its long history of rum production. Spanish colonists
established the industry there in the 18th century and it
flourishes to this day.
By far the best-known distiller
on the island is Bacardi whose art-deco distillery, known locally as
the ‘cathedral of rum’, lies just outside the capital San Juan,
directly across its picturesque bay, opposite the old Spanish fort
of El Morro.
Bacardi have been producing in
Puerto Rico since 1936 – a far-sighted decision as it happens, as
the existence of the San Juan distillery saved the company when,
in 1960, its Cuban operations were nationalised by Fidel
Castro and the Bacardi family expelled from the island.
By moving production to nearby
Puerto Rico and expanding the distillery there, Bacardi were able to
maintain their operations and the foundations for one of the world’s
great drinks dynasties were, ironically, strengthened by the
enforced move. Today, still in the hands of the descendants of the
original Don Facundo Bacardi y Masso, Bacardi
own their eponymous rum as well as great brands such as Martini,
Bombay gin, Grey Goose vodka and Dewar’s
Scotch whisky.
In Puerto Rico, Bacardi produce
their full line up of fine rums. We’re all familiar with the white
Carta Blanca, so popular in rum and coke (properly, a ‘Cuba Libre’),
but an extensive range of aged dark rums, for sipping in greater
moderation, are also produced. Perhaps the finest of these is the
Carta Limitada, a 12-year-old premium dark rum that can be likened
to a single malt whisky or fine cognac.
As its name suggests, Carta
Limitada is in limited supply. So exclusive, in fact, that it can
only be purchased at the distillery.
And that brings us back to Puerto
Rico’s burgeoning tourism industry, for Bacardi have recently
constructed a superb new visitor centre at the San Juan distillery,
known as the Casa Bacardi. Built at a cost of $7.5m, the Casa
Bacardi has already welcomed in excess of 150,000 guests in its
first year (by contrast, the most successful and long-established of
the malt whisky distillery centres in Scotland will host no more
than 100,000 visits annually).
It’s already
attracting celebrity visitors from across the Caribbean and Latin
America.
Bill Ford, of the motor
company, paid a private visit and the centre has also played host to
TV soap opera stars, models, baseball (huge in Puerto Rico) players,
and other American sports’ giants. International shoe designer
Edmundo Castillo who includes amongst the clients of his SoHo New
York boutique Madonna,
Catherine Zeta-Jones
and Kate Hudson launched a recent collection there. Having grown up
in Puerto Rico, Castillo saw the connection between Bacardi’s global
style and his sexy and fashionable creations.
In opening up their home, Bacardi
are following in a long tradition. Back in their Cuban days, the
company operated a bar in their Havana offices, mentioned by Graham
Greene in Our Man in Havana. It’s there to this day, its art
deco furniture, fine hard wood marquetry and veneered panelled walls
somewhat faded but intact.
Of course, with Bacardi exiled
from their homeland, today it serves Havana Club – Bacardi’s great
rival - but a tiny model bat, Bacardi’s corporate logo, peeps out
from the bar fittings to remind you whose home this really is. The
bat logo dates from 1862, and was a traditional symbol of good
fortune in the Caribbean. Bats also inhabited the first Bacardi
distillery!
To this day, the building, known
still as the Edificio Bacardi, is topped with a huge statue of a
bat. Apparently, Castro’s
men wanted to remove it but realised that it’s part of the
structural engineering of the building. Remove it, and the walls
would fall out. So the bat stayed and, no doubt, its owners will
return when Castro’s
government is replaced.
In the 1930s and 1940s the bar at
the Edificio Bacardi was the hot spot of Havana. That heritage is
celebrated in the new facilities at San Juan. An exact replica of
the bar has been built, albeit larger to accommodate the greater
number of visitors, and senior Bacardi family members apparently
broke down in tears at the opening, so emotional was the connection
to the old family home.
Visitors to the Bacardi plant
enjoy a great day out. They are greeted with cocktails at a free
bar, where musicians are often playing. A tour bus takes a
leisurely journey round the site, dropping off visitors at the Casa
Bacardi where they can explore the exhibits at their own pace.
There’s a hand-held audio guide
in Spanish or English but many of the displays, like the old
distilling apparatus and tiled murals in the cool entrance
courtyard, are self-explanatory. There you can see how Columbus
brought the Europeans to the Caribbean, and with them came sugar
cane, distilling and the early days of rum.
A brief presentation on
Bacardi’s history and the rum making process then follows in a
lavish auditrium. This gives way to a historical recreation of the
original 1862 distillery; a copper still that was hand-made in
Scotland to the exact design of the original, and El Coco the
palm tree.
And this is the very heart of the
visitor experience. At the opening of the centre Ruben Rodriquez,
Bacardi’s Chairman (now retired) was moved to say “This is more than
a visitors’ centre, it’s where our Bacardi soul rests.”
Bacardi family legend, polished
no doubt by their marketing machine, relates that company founder
Don Facundo Bacardi planted the tree
and succeeding generations faithfully nurtured it. It was said that
while the tree lived, the Bacardi family would never leave Cuba.
Shortly after the Castro takeover, however, the revolutionary
government nationalised the distillery and expelled the family.
True to its destiny, the tree died.
After paying their respects to El
Coco’s venerable trunk, visitors can view an office with family
artefacts, then gain an appreciation of the rum making process in
both historical and contemporary terms. There are interactive video
stations and giant barrels housing aroma stations where you can nose
the Bacardi rums, from the traditional styles to Bacardi’s latest
flavoured expressions.
Following that educational
element, the fun starts. You enter the art deco bar from Havana and
enjoy a cocktail show by a skilled barman, then walk down a
nostalgic timeline of Bacardi advertising into a night club setting
with light show and the latest TV commercials projected onto giant
screens. Video messaging kiosks allow you to share the fun with
no-doubt envious friends back home – after which you emerge blinking
into the sunshine and re-board the tour bus.
The tour continues through the
landscaped grounds, past the actual distillery itself and a small
bottling line. Last stop is a gift shop, of course, and then you
return to the bar.
The gift shop is not to be
ignored, however. It’s a chance to pick up some of the more unusual
Bacardi expressions and enjoy a finer rum experience.
Chances are, you under-rate
Bacardi. I did, until I stopped to think about it and find out
more. First off, the standard white Bacardi, the Carta Blanca, that
is so totally ubiquitous is actually quite an unusual product.
The majority of white rum producers take their product right
off the still (like gin or vodka), dilute it to bottling strength
and get it into the market just as quickly as they can.
Not so Bacardi. First they
charcoal filter the new spirit, just like Jack Daniel’s (though
Bacardi claim they were doing it first). Then, unusually, they age
the spirit in carefully selected oak barrels for at least a year.
Allowing for the incredible temperatures and humidity of
the Caribbean, that’s the equivalent of at least three years aging
for a cognac or Scotch whisky. So obsessive about this are they
that a dedicated cooperage is maintained right on the plant to
produce and overhaul their own casks.
Then, after a year, when the rum
has gained a light golden colour they filter it again and ‘polish’
it to get that clear, colourless liquid that we know so well. Then
we get to try it – and promptly fill it with ice and cola! But
sampled against other white rums, Bacardi
Carta Blanca has a sophistication and a maturity of taste that both
surprises and delights.
However, that’s not the really
interesting bit. Assuming your taste runs to more than the standard
version, you need to seek out some of their older rums. In Puerto
Rico, and in the USA, you can find products such as Aņejo and 1873 –
aged rum products that have long since shed their ‘pirates and
party’ image.
Here the next step for the
inquiring drinker is to seek out Bacardi Oro, a golden rum aged for
at least two years. Essentially, it’s the same product as Carta
Blanca, but with extra ageing and minus the final polishing filter.
So the bright golden colour remains, together with a greater
richness and depth of flavour that’s the ideal cocktail base. It’s
a considerably more interesting and flavoursome product for not very
much more money. Altogether a more compelling buy.
The company describe it in the
following terms: “a dry and smooth golden rum, ideal for those who
want a rich and mellow flavour. Using Bacardi rums aged between two
and five years, the Bacardi rum Master Blenders blend Bacardi Oro
rum to match the colour, taste, aroma and finish of an original
recipe from 1862.”
It is this unique balance of
flavours that makes Bacardi Oro rum the ideal rum to use in the
Daiquiri cocktail. Its mellow flavour is also ideal for subtle and
slightly dry mixers such as ginger ale, grapefruit juice or a splash
of soda water
Next up, at least in the UK, is
Bacardi 8, an 8-year-old rum first launched in Britain five years
ago. Apart from the ultra exclusive Carta Limitada, this is
Bacardi’s most complex rum. It’s a golden sipping rum made from a
blend of aged Bacardi rums ranging from eight to 16 years, that’s
best served after dinner.
Quadruple distilled, filtered
through charcoal and matured in handmade charred American white oak
casks, Bacardi 8 develops a deep and rich flavour. It’s hard to
recall that this starts out life as sugar molasses, such is the
maturity of its amber depths.
The company suggest that it is
best served neat over ice. That may work well in the heat of the
Caribbean
but, here at least, I beg to differ. This is a superb drop for your
hip flask when out walking or shooting. In addition, its slight
sweetness goes very well indeed with a rich cigar. There are
satisfying layers of complexity that stand up well against a vintage
cognac or malt whisky. Served blind, it’s an interesting challenge
for your guests that might just blow away a few prejudices when the
name ‘rum’ is mentioned.
But if you can make it to Puerto
Rico and the Casa Bacardi (and there’s a lot more to see on this
fascinating and historic island) try to pick up the Carta Limitada
and some of the flavoured Bacardis not currently available in the
UK. My favourite is the orange flavoured variety, simply called ‘O’
(there’s a story there, I would think), but Bacardi Coco also makes
a useful cocktail base.
It’s quite fitting that Bacardi’s
latest offering features coconut. After all, as we have seen, it
all began with a palm tree.
