L
ike many great stories from the past, the origins of Bodegas Suau, Mallorca’s oldest distillery, began with a ship and a sense of adventure. In the early 19th century, Juan Suau y Bennassar was sailing from Mallorca to the Caribbean Islands, specifically Cuba, where, inspired by the sugar cane plantations that he would discover there, set up a distillery to produce rum, brandy and anise that was transported between the islands. His first rum, Ron Jungla, which is still produced today, defines the legend of this historic bodega. On his first voyage to Cuba, he stopped in a West African town and was in a tavern having drinks, when the owner gave him an amulet of an elephant with his trunk raised, telling the young sailor that this elephant was meant to be good luck. What at first seemed to be simply a fun souvenir turned out to be Suau y Bennassar’s good-luck charm, as he was caught in a terrible storm on his way to Cuba that could have been his fatal end. Convinced that this amulet saved him, he created his first logo - the elephant with its trunk raised for his Ron Jungla, and this continues to be a symbol of the brand. One of the brandy bottles is marked with the famous El Mallorquin ship that carried Juan Suau y Bennassar, across the seas. For years, Suau y Bennassar was moving rum between Cuba and Mallorca until he fell in love with a Mallorquin woman and decided to settle back on Mallorca and marry (in part because the woman’s family insisted he stop his adventures, so they say…).
