Don Facundo Bacardi Masso emigrated to Cuba from Spain in 1830. Arriving as a wine merchant he set up as a grocer in the 1840s and was experimenting with distillation by 1852 trying to improve the quality of the local rum by trying various technical experiments in distillation and ageing. As a result of these experiments Facundo decided to use charcoal filtration to remove the rum’s impurities, and he also employed oak-ageing to smooth the raw edges of the spirit and produce a mellow clear white rum.
