Touring the Bacardi Rum Factory in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s Bacardi Rum Factory is known as the “Cathedral of Rum”. A tour of the factory is a must for all the faithful lovers of the world-renowned Bacardi Rum. If you are visiting Old San Juan, you will be delighted to see the 6-storey pink tower, home to the Bacardi Rum Factory, from across the San Juan bay. Free tours of the factory are conducted every day. The public buses are available every 30 minutes. Board on any one of the buses and reach the factory’s entrance. You can also take a ferry to reach the factory.

The Bacardi family was initially based in Cuba from where they started producing rum. Later on, they moved to San Juan in 1936 and started producing the famous Bacardi Rum from here. When you tour the factory, you will be able to see its inner operations, and how over 100,000 gallons of rum are effortlessly produced daily. You will also get some free samples of the rum here.

The Casa Bacardi, which is based in San Juan, is presently the largest rum distillery in the world. The factory has generated immense interest among the visitors with its popular tours, which are being conducted ever since 1962. The tour brings you into the heart of an empire known for producing rum since ages and has left its mark in the Caribbean.

The first thing that you will see on your tour is Bacardi’s iconic logo ‘Bat’. How did the bat logo originate is the first question that the tourists ask. The guide informs that the distillery’s rafters were home to fruit bats, and here lies the origin of Bacardi’s bat logo.

The tour is conducted for one hour. The tour takes the visitors through the interactive exhibit room. Here they get the opportunity to see Bacardi’s first distillery. The heirlooms are also showcased and photo archives from the past. An amazing display of different varieties of rum and blends of spirit are also there for you. The tour also offers a great learning experience. You will get to know the process that painstakingly goes into the making of rum. The guide will tell you about the two types of fermentation, as well as the best types of rum that can be sipped or mixed. The guide also conveys about how the byproducts are used after rum production.

The tour concludes with free samples of rum. The visitors are invited to the pavilion for ordering their favorite Bacardi drink and even try something new. You can also make purchases from the gift shop located within the Bacardi Rum Factory complex.