A liqueur chemist and twelve workers were the army that Francisco Gerardo Smith had to produce rum. So it was that in 1934 he acquired the large house numbered 1417 on one of the most central avenues of old Havana, Calzada del Cerro.
The property, nicknamed La Casa de las Culebras, was a quita, including stables, which had belonged in the early 18th century to Creole royalty: the Count of Villanueva. In time, when the bourgeoisie decided to change its setting to the west of the city, it became the Colegio del Hogar, intended for lay gentlemen.
In the first half of the 20th century, overnight, that small palace became one of the 116 rum factories that existed in Cuba: Bocoy. The boom in the consumption of spirits on the island led to a boom in this type of industry.
Creams of all kinds, Bocoy Cognac and Brandy (sherry), Bocoy Rum (white and golden), Añejillo Ronda, Grape brandy, Cazalla (sweet and dry), were the first products produced by the incipient industry which, in 1943, was called: Almacenes ron Bocoy. Vivieres y Licores and had once again changed its design: Ramon Blanco Interina, who acquired it for only 5,000 pesos.
Luis Ángel Álvares, born in the city of Manzanillo, in eastern Cuba, has been involved in the world of rum for more than half a century since he embarked on the adventure of blending spirits at the age of 20.
For 33 years, he has been a master in the factory of ones. "Around 1965, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, they began to produce spirits for export, given the characteristics of Bocoy, to produce them in the traditional way.
"Although the Legendario brand had already been known in the domestic market since 1950, Luis recalls, it was in 1976 that it was decided to produce it in Bocoy. It is a very pure rum acquired using age-old methods: a filtration system with double bottoms in the tanks, the use of silica sand and activated charcoal, where both spirits and brandies are dissolved at 55º, which are processed by gravity in this system, which also consists of American oak barrels where the spirits and fresh alcohols are aged in soleras of one, two, four and six years: that is the secret of Legendario".
Legendario Elixir 7 years
Delicate, personal and different from other essences of Cuban tradition.
Distinguished by its perfect balance of rum aromas. A complex composition of extracts from different rums aged for 7 years.
Clarity on the palate with a smooth, spicy finish.
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