• Submitted by: admin
• Editorial Articles
• Culture and Traditions
• 11 / 03 / 2006

In all human works, there are one or more names and the Cuban rum is not an exception to this respect. Two men and a trademark are very well known.

The first one was José Arechavala y Aldama. He was a Biscayan who founded the Biscaya industry in Cardenas that later was known as Arechavala. This industry became into one of the greatest distillery of the country. The product manufactured was of high quality under the trademark Havana Club. Other products were later added to the production like the Varadero rum.

Although all the rums produced in Cuba are of good quality, those made in Santiago de Cuba are the best of all. In this city, a Catalan named Facundo Bacardí Massó, created the Bacardi rum factory that was universalized thanks to the matchless natural conditions of the Cuban eastern part, but this trademark is not produced in Cuba anymore.

The excellence of the Bacardi product at that time not only was due to the great output of the Cuban sugar cane whose golden syrups were exceptional for that purpose, but also to the pristine and pure waters of San Juan river which were supplied to that pioneering factory.

Nowadays, other excellent rums are produced in Santiago de Cuba like Matusalén, Santiago, Caribbean Club Varadero, Caney, Paticruzáo and Caribe rums.