4In 1862, in the city of Santiago di Cuba, a family-owned business purchased a distillery, producing the first bottle of what would become known as Barcadi rum. In the years that followed, Barcadi expanded to become a globally recognized household name, renowned for its premium quality white rum. The Bat tells the story of the Bacardi company, from its origins in the mid-19th century to its expansion in the early 20th to its international acclaim as the world's leading manufacturer of spirits today. This is the story of a company but it is also the story of a family who has faced political and societal upheaval, from the Spanish American War to American Prohibition and the Cuban Revolution, and has continued to go from strength to strength throughout over the last 150 years. As a member of the Bacardi family and former employee of the company, Jorge del Rosal provides a unique insider's point of view in parallel to his own story as the company expanded in the latter half of the 20th century to today.