Casa BACARDÍ
Tourist attraction · Cataño ·
Rum distillery with historical tours, mixology classes & tastings
Rum distillery with historical tours, mixology classes & tastings
"A top destination for visitors interested in the island's signature spirit, featuring an impressive visitors' center and panoramic city views that complement guided tastings and tours; the venue's unmatched rum selection is emphasized as the main attraction for guests curious about local rums." - Carley Rojas Avila Carley Rojas Avila Carley Rojas Avila is a bilingual travel writer, editor, and content marketer. She is an expert on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Cuba, as she lived and worked in four different countries in that region. Carley founded the digital travel publications Loosely Local and Home to Havana. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"A modern visitor center offering distillery tours and a premium selection of the brand's finest spirits, located just across the bay from Old San Juan; positioned as one of the island's showstopping spirits experiences for visitors interested in rum history and tastings." - Carley Rojas Avila Carley Rojas Avila Carley Rojas Avila is a bilingual travel writer, editor, and content marketer. She is an expert on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Cuba, as she lived and worked in four different countries in that region. Carley founded the digital travel publications Loosely Local and Home to Havana. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"Across the bay in Cataño, Casa Bacardí offers everything from a casual patio bar for daytime piña coladas and a gift shop with rum-flavored coffee and chocolate to a full distillery tour that includes a trolley ride to aging cellars stacked with fragrant oak barrels, plus a rum tasting and mixology course; as the brand ambassador notes, Puerto Rico is a 'remix culture' you can taste as well as hear." - Suzy Exposito
"On the outskirts of the working class barrios of Cataño, Puerto Rico, lies an oasis for the discerning cocktail sipper, the Casa Bacardí. Inside the giant iron gates, adorned with the distinctive bat emblem, the world’s largest Bacardí distillery looks more like an exclusive country club. The lush manicured lawns and tropical palms, decorated with modern art sculptures, provide the perfect canvas for the beautiful Art Deco “Cathedral of Rum” building. The journey to the Casa is worthwhile, with tours around the distillery where over 100,000 liters of rum are produced every single day. Beginning at the docks of the old Spanish colonial city of San Juan, the Lancha de Cataño ferry service takes you across the Bahía de San Juan for just 50 cents. Upon disembarking at Cataño docks, you will find an old-school shuttle service to the Casa Bacardí for just three dollars. Despite being one of the worlds largest brands, Bacardí is still a family-run company. Founder Don Facundo Bacardí Massó, a Spaniard who immigrated to Cuba in 1830, created a unique method of distilling rum that turned it from the drink of choice for Royal Navy tars into a refined spirit. Today, Bacardí is made almost identically according to Don Facundo’s original secret process of fermentation, distillation, and charcoal filtration. His first distillery in Cuba opened in 1862. The building’s rafters were home to a family of fruit bats, from which he created the distinctive Bacardí logo. Though Don Facundo’s eldest son was imprisoned and eventually exiled from Cuba during the Independence Wars of the 1890s, the postwar introduction of Coca Cola to Cuba by US troops produced one of the world’s simplest and most popular mixed drinks: the Cuba Libre!, or rum and Coke (with a slice of lime). As Bacardí grew more successful, further factories were opened in Mexico and Puerto Rico. But the Cuban unrest of the 1960s saw the Bacardí family leave Cuba for good, bringing their distillery in Puerto Rico to the fore. Today, tours around the elegant, leafy Casa Bacardí show some aspects of the secret distillation process, and a well-appointed museum features examples of the very first Bacardí bottles, along with some of the hundreds of medals won by the brand. The tour concludes with an outdoor bar where samples of Don Facundo’s historic rums can be enjoyed. The highlight of a visit to the Casa Bacardí, however, is the distilling building itself—one of the most glorious examples of tropical Art Deco architecture to be found anywhere in the Caribbean." - ATLAS_OBSCURA
"The distillery located just across the bay from San Juan that produces the majority of BACARDÍ rum consumed worldwide and offers immersive tours; in addition to production history and tastings, the site runs a recommended mixology and tasting class that teaches techniques and recipes like the perfect mojito and a shaken piña colada." - AFAR
