Bacardi
Yes, that’s a bat on the label. Don Facundo Bacardi Massó was only 15 years old when his family emigrated from Spain to Cuba in 1814. After a career in wine importation and extensive experimentation with different formulas for making rum, in 1862 Don Facundo established the Bacardi distillery in Santiago, where he and his brothers filtered their rum through charcoal, a process Don Facundo had developed.
Don Facundo’s wife, Dona Amalia Lucía Victoria Moreau, suggested that the bat would make a good symbol for the new Bacardi rum. She had noticed a colony of fruit bats living in the rafters of the distillery, and knew that in Cuban lore bats were considered harbingers of good luck and prosperity. The distinctive visual trademark of the bat, in an era of widespread illiteracy, helped to make Bacardi the most popular rum in Cuba and eventually one of the world’s leading brands.
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This is wonderful — I wish you would add to the story. The Bacardis fled Cuba after the revolution and went to Puerto Rico.
The beautiful building remains in Havana, complete with Bacardi bat logo at the entrance.
The rum produced in Cuba in the same factories is now called “Havana Club”. Pronounced by the Cubans as “Habana Cloob.”
Thanks!