How did Bacardi end up in Puerto Rico?

I know Bacardi was founded in Cuba in the 19th century by Facundo Bacardi but I don't quite understand how it ended up in PR and why they claim originality to the rum in their bottles. Can someone explain? Thanks.|||The short answer is that after prohibition Bacardi wanted to be able to get back into the US market with greater penetration so part of their operations were moved to Puerto Rico which would make the product much easier to move to the mainland US. Around 1955 Bacardi also moved part of its operation to the Bahamas which in turn gave its brands trade preference in the British Commonwealth. These moves turned out to be very good ones for Bacardi since Castro nationalized what was left of their Cuban operations when they took power.





If you're referring to Bacardi calling themselves the original Cuban rum, or as in one of their newest commercials, 'the original mojito' etc... Bacardi has always been very proud of its cuban roots, however for many years there was nothing mentioned about Cuba in Bacardi advertising or packaging. Since the Bacardi being sold in the United States was made in the US(Puerto Rico), the omission of it being a "Cuban Rum" would have been a marketing decision probably that due to the embargo with the US that being seen as Cuban may have been detrimental to sales.


You will often see brands try to change the name of popular drinks to give preference to themselves. A rum and coke used to be a Cuba Libre, until Bacardi left Cuba at which point they began referring to it as a rum and coke. In the 90's Bacardi decided to "become Cuban" again, and remind everybody that it was indeed originally a Cuban rum. They even started calling the rum and coke, or Bacardi and Coke a Cuba Libre again. It may seem small and insignificant but now that Captain Morgan rum has such a big portion of the US spirit market you won't hear cuba libre or rum and coke from them, it's always "captain and coke",,,


So claims of originality whether true, untrue, partly true or totally fiction are usually just marketing tools.|||How does anything start anyway, they probably invented it...