Editing Bacardi (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Bacardi-Original-Distillery.jpg|thumb|The original Bacardi distillery in [[Santiago de Cuba]]]]
[[Facundo Bacardi|Facundo Bacardí Massó]], a Spanish [[Winemaker|wine merchant]], was born in [[Sitges]], Catalonia, [[Spain]], on October 16, 1814, and immigrated to [[Santiago de Cuba|Santiago]], Cuba, in 1830. At the time, rum was cheaply made and not considered a refined drink, and rarely sold in upmarket taverns or purchased by the growing emerging middle class on the island.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Bacardi: The Hidden War |chapter=More Than a Rum 'War' |pages=81–90 |year=2015 |publisher=Pluto Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt18mvnpg.17 |isbn=978-1-78371-894-8}}</ref> Facundo began attempting to "tame" rum by isolating a proprietary strain of yeast harvested from local sugar cane still used in Bacardí production today. This yeast gives Bacardí rum its flavour profile. After experimenting with several techniques for close to ten years, Facundo pioneered charcoal rum filtration, which removed impurities from his rum. Facundo then created two separate distillates that he could blend together, balancing a variety of flavors: [[Aguardiente]] (a robust, flavorful distillate) and Redestillado (a refined, delicate distillate). Once Facundo achieved the perfect balance of flavors by marrying the two distillates together, he purposefully aged the rum in white oak barrels to develop subtle flavors and characteristics while mellowing out those that were unwanted. The final product was the first clear, light-bodied, and mixable "white" rum in the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=November 2006 |title=FRP tanks still going strong after 23 years |journal=Reinforced Plastics |volume=50 |issue=10 |pages=4 |doi=10.1016/s0034-3617(06)71130-4 |issn=0034-3617}}</ref>

Moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavour as local sales began to grow, Facundo and his brother José purchased a [[Santiago de Cuba]] distillery on October 16, 1862, which housed a [[still]] made of copper and [[cast iron]]. In the rafters of this building lived [[Leaf-nosed bat|fruit bats]]&nbsp;– the inspiration for the Bacardi bat logo.<ref name="Bacardi History">{{Cite web |title=Bacardi Heritage and History Time Line|url=https://www.bacardilimited.com/our-company/our-history/|access-date=2022-12-31|publisher=Bacardi Limited|language=en}}</ref> It was the idea of Doña Amalia, Facundo's wife, to adopt the bat to the rum bottle when she recognized its symbolism of family unity, good health, and good fortune to her husband's homeland of Spain. This logo was pragmatic considering the high illiteracy rate in the 19th century, enabling customers to easily identify the product.<ref>[https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=535315 "Bacardi and the bat: All Bacardi rum supplied to U.S. bottled in Jacksonville"]. ''Jax Daily Record''. 3 January 2012.</ref>

The 1880s and 1890s were turbulent times for Cuba and the company. [[Emilio Bacardí]], Don Facundo's eldest son, known for his forward thinking in both his professional and personal life and a passionate advocate for Cuban Independence was imprisoned twice for having fought in the rebel army against Spain in the [[Cuban War of Independence]].<ref name="Gjelten 2008">{{Cite book |last=Gjelten |first=Tom |url=https://archive.org/details/bacardilongfight00gjel |title=Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba |publisher=Viking |year=2008 |isbn=9780670019786 |location=New York |author-link=Tom Gjelten |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2023}}

Emilio's brothers, Facundo and José, and their brother-in-law Enrique 'Henri' Schueg, remained in Cuba with the difficult task of sustaining the company during a period of war. With Don Facundo's passing in 1886, Doña Amalia sought refuge by exile in [[Kingston, Jamaica]]. At the end of the Cuban War of Independence during the US occupation of Cuba, "The Original [[Cuba Libre]]" and the [[Daiquiri]] cocktails were both created, with the then Cuban based Bacardí rum.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.strawberry-daiquiri-recipe.com/strawberry-daiquiri-invention.php |title=Daiquiri |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106192617/http://www.strawberry-daiquiri-recipe.com/strawberry-daiquiri-invention.php |archive-date=6 January 2009 |access-date=21 October 2008}}</ref> In 1899, Emilio Bacardí became the first democratically elected mayor of Santiago, appointed US General [[Leonard Wood]].

During his time in public office, Emilio established schools and hospitals, completed municipal projects such as the famous Padre Pico Street and the Bacardi Dam, financed the creation of parks, and decorated the city of Santiago with monuments and sculptures.<ref name="Gjelten 2008" />{{page needed|date=June 2023}} In 1912, Emilio and his wife travelled to [[Egypt]], where he purchased a [[mummy]] (still on display) for the future [[Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau|Emilio Bacardi Moreau Municipal Museum]] in Santiago de Cuba.<ref name="Coulombe">{{Cite book |last=Coulombe |first=Charles A. |title=Rum |publisher=Citadel Press}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2023}} In Santiago, his brother Facundo M. Bacardí continued to manage the company along with Schueg, who began the company's international expansion by opening bottling plants in [[Barcelona]] (1910) and New York City (1916).<ref name="Bacardi History" /> The New York plant was soon shut down due to [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]], yet during this time Cuba became a hotspot for US tourists, kicking off a period of rapid growth for the Bacardi company and the onset of cocktail culture in America.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Duggleby|first1=R. G.|last2=Kaplan|first2=H.|date=1975-11-18|title=A competitive labeling method for the determination of the chemical properties of solitary functional groups in proteins|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42|journal=Biochemistry|volume=14|issue=23|pages=5168–5175|doi=10.1021/bi00694a023|issn=0006-2960|pmid=42}}</ref>[[File:Havana_Art_Deco_(8954145059).jpg|thumb|The [[Bacardi Building (Havana)|Bacardi Building]] in [[Havana]] was constructed in 1930 but abandoned when the company fled Cuba following the [[Cuban Revolution]] in 1959]]In 1922, the family completed the expansion and renovation of the original distillery in Santiago, increasing the site's rum production capacity. In 1930 Schueg oversaw the construction and opening of [[Bacardi Building (Havana)|Edificio Bacardí]] in Havana, regarded as one of the finest [[Art Deco]] buildings in [[Latin America]], as the third generation of the Bacardí family entered the business. In 1927, Bacardi ventured outside the realm of spirits for the first time, with the introduction of an authentic Cuban Malt beer: [[Hatuey (beer)|Hatuey beer]].

Bacardi's success in transitioning into an international brand and company was due mostly to Schueg, who branded Cuba as "The home of rum", and Bacardí as "The king of rums and the rum of Kings". Expansion began overseas, first to [[Mexico]] in 1931, where architects [[Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe]] and [[Felix Candela]] designed office buildings and a bottling plant in Mexico City during the 1950s. The building complex was added to the tentative list of UNESCO's World Heritage Site list on 20 November 2001.<ref name="UNESCO">{{Cite web|title=Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Felix Candela's Industrial Buildings |publisher=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1596/|access-date=18 April 2010}}</ref> In 1936, Bacardi began producing rum on U.S. territory in [[Puerto Rico]] after Prohibition which enabled the company to sell rum tariff-free in the United States.<ref name="washpost 2008-08-24">{{Cite news|last=Robinson|first=Linda|date=2008-08-24|title=Rum and Revolution|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |language=en-US|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082102222.html|access-date=2022-12-31}}</ref> The company later expanded to the United States in 1944 with the opening of Bacardi Imports, Inc. in [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]].<ref name="bacardilimited.com">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bacardilimited.com/our-heritage/the-early-years#prohibition_innovaction |title=Bacardi Limited: Our Heritage – Prohibition and Innovation |publisher=Bacardi |access-date=10 May 2011}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], the company was led by Schueg's son-in-law, [[Jose Maria Bosch Lamarque|José "Pepin" Bosch]]. Pepin founded Bacardi Imports in New York City and became Cuba's [[Ministry of Finance and Prices (Cuba)|Minister of the Treasury]] in 1949.