All countries have their famous drink. Tequila in Mexico, Whiskey in the USA, Vodka in Russia, Sake in Japan,Champagne in France…
It have been about 30 year when, I do my first time Bacardi Tour. Some may call it a Tourist tramp, but once you visit it, the Bacardi Tour experience will meet your expectations.
As a major Rum Marketing experts, the actual tour is not the same one that I take that many years ago.
Puerto Rico is the main site of Bacardi Rum. Here they produce more than 85% of the Rum they sale internationally.
They also have Rum production in Mexico and India.
With a great open space, they have a beautiful landscape with a Old San Juan and El Morro view.
They offer 3 different tours at their facilities. The first one called The Legacy, gave you the opportunity to visit and a guided walk around the Museum and the distillery.
The other one include the Museum, and a taste 4 different premium Rum.
The last one is a mini class of mixology, this also includes the Museum visit.
You need to do reservations for any of the tours. They welcome you with a Drink of your choice. To redeem your.welcome drink , they gave you a token coin with the Barcardi logo, making a cross reference of the spanish era, when Rum was one of the trade item in the economy.
While waiting for the tour to start, you can sit and enjoy you drink, or you can take photos around the Visitors Center.
They advice you when to get in on the trolley, to began with the tour.
As they start moving, you host start to gave you information of the Bacardi History. The first stop is at the Bacardi Museum. Once inside, they continue with History using the Museum painted wall. Then they start to explain the difference kind of Rum they produce at the distillery. Immediately, they gave you a taste of one of their finest Rum with 12 years of aging in white oak barrel.
Back, again on the trolley, they show you the pipes and tanks and the main building in the distillery. What they call, the Rum Cathedral.
That is the place they guard the mix of the recipe of the Bacardi Rum.
Then you arrive at the conference room building. With sugar cane landscaping, to emphasize the use of sugar on the melaza to do the Rum
With a great lobby and hallway with photos and painting decorations of Bacardi History. They have two rooms. First prepared to receive the people from the Taste Tour. And the other one prepare with working station to prepare the drinks at the mixology tour.
Your guide will help you to make this class a fun and learning experience.
Once the class is over, you will be directed again to visitor center,
where is also the gift shop,.a little snack place, and the Barcardi Bar.
You can take photos of the visitor center area, and the beautiful view of the San Juan Bay with the El Morro fortress view.
Remember always to enjoy and drink with moderation.
To be fair, the others main Rum distillers in the Island , also have Tours in their facilities.
