Captain Morgan

In the 17th century, a Welshman named Sir Henry Morgan set sail for the West Indies and stopped on a tropical island in the Caribbean.
He was respected by his crew and made a name for himself in every port he arrived at, so much so that he became governor of Jamaica and remained there until his death in 1688.

Although sugar cane was already used in Egypt to make alcohol, it did not become more widely used until the 16th century when farmers began using the sugar cane from their plantations for alcoholic beverages. As its popularity grew, people changed the flavor by adding different things to it to make it unique to their own country's tastes. Jamaica added molasses, the byproduct of sugar production, which they distilled and turned into rum.
Rum was extremely strong and in some cases too strong for the general public to consume and they softened it by adding spices.

In 1944, Samuel Bronfman's Seagram Company purchased the Long Pond distillery from the Jamaican government. One of the buyers was a family called Levy's, who bought raw rum and added herbs and spices. Samuel thought this was a good idea and bought the rights to the rum.

He named the rum Captain Morgan and built larger distilleries in San Juan. He sold the distillery in Puerto Rico due to tax restrictions, but allowed the company to use the Captain Morgan name under licence.

By 1984, Captain Morgan Rum was the 7th largest spirits brand in the world and the 2nd largest in the United States. It was sold all over the world.

In 2001, Seagram sold the brand to Diageo and a rebranding took place. The mascot Captain Morgan was displayed around the world in competitions, where people were encouraged to dress up as the Captain in a "selfie" to win a prize. Likewise, there were major promotional marketing activities involving NFL players.

Today, the brand is known around the world and many flavours have been created, with Captain Morgan's Original Black Rum being the first to be produced, and 18 more flavours over the years.