AN UNDESERVED REPUTATION?

BACARDI is one of the biggest spirit drink producers in the world with sales valued at over $2 billion per year. But is the popularity deserved? Not if you have picked up the idea from its advertising that bacardi is an authentic cuban rum from Cuba. Bacardi makes a lot of the fact that it was established in Cuba in 1862, but today:

BACARDI IS NEITHER PRODUCED NOR CONSUMED IN CUBA.

Does drinking Bacardi help the Cuban people?

The BACARDI company is a family owned concern that is worth over $1 billion BUT NOT A PENNY OF ITS SALES goes to the Cuban economy. The rum they sell is made elsewhere and their HQ is in the Bahamas... NOT CUBA.

In 1994, Bacardi wrote to all foreign drinks firms, including British brewers, warning them off from investing in their former companies in Cuba.

So if you want to drink an authentic rum from Cuba, order a cuban brand such as Havana Club. You may want to drink authentic rum from Cuba because it tastes the best or you want to show solidarity with Cuba. It certainly needs your support.

BACARDI has admitted that it "has historically supported the embargo", and that they have made their lawyers available on request to advise on technical aspects of drafting the Helms Burton Law. Opponents of the measure joked that the Law ought to have been called the "Helms-Burton-Bacardi Protection Act!". By supporting such laws, Bacardi are helping to keep alive a policy that the american Association of World Health has said causes deaths among children in Cuba.