Bacardi Center of Excellence

Sustainability is more than just a pillar for us and it is evident in the initiatives we’ve expanded upon over the course of this academic year. The Coffee Guild’s original Coffee Body Scrubs and Coffee Barbecue Rubs use spent and unspent grounds to reduce waste in a productive manner. Spent grounds have been used to brew coffee and are then dehydrated, while unspent grounds are those that were intended for coffee education, but oxidized before they could be used. Coffee Body Scrubs combine Nutiva Coconut oil, which supports sustainable farmers and organically sourced coconuts, with varied botanicals which are repurposed and dehydrated by the Bartenders Guild. Our Coffee Barbecue Rubs combine these grounds with different spices from our partners at Badia Spices, Inc. including garlic, onion, and paprika powder to create a rub fit for protein, vegetables, and beyond!

There are 6 days left until you can find us on the sand at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival?! We’ll be activating at the Grand Tasting Village under the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management booth from Friday-Sunday, bringing sustainability and innovation to life. We will also be at Noche Cubana on Saturday night, serving Bacardi and Havana Club cocktails. We hope to see you there!

To kick off the year, our Program Manager, Mitchell Meredith, traveled to El Salvador in a collaborative origin trip with Lavazza North America and Aramark for hands-on learning that reinforced the classroom teachings. They explored the coffee-growing regions of Apaneca and Santa Ana while participating in the Lavazza Cup of Learning training, experiencing the 44 hands it takes to produce a single cup of coffee. The students - Maria Isabela Martinez de la Parra, Ximena Fischnaler, and Devon Mederos - even had the opportunity to plant their own coffee trees, harvest coffee cherries, participate in coffee processing, and observing the roasting process. Alum Yasmine Tesone also visited the tree she planted from her trip in 2024. This experience furthered students understanding of the beverage industry and the importance of the coffee industry, while networking with fellow beverage professionals.

Over the weekend, our students had an amazing opportunity to fly out to Washington, D.C., where they worked at two different inauguration events hosted by the FIU DC campus! Throughout the event, students were able to combine the skills they learned on FutureProof with their practical leadership skills, facilitating both alcoholic and non-alcoholic crafting stations. From start to finish, our student leaders worked directly with the team at FIU DC, including Michelle Castro, Ph.D. and Carlos A. Becerra , refining our students valuable managerial skills! We’d also like to thank Kenneth A. Jessell from FIU and Kristin B. from Bacardi for stopping by and talking to our students.

Check out the article below featuring one of our most recent Fall ’24 graduates, Yasmine Tesone! This article highlights her journey and how her commitment to exploring her passions has positively impacted her educational experience in South Florida and beyond. We can’t wait to see where Yasmine’s career journey takes her!

Spotlighting our BevPreneur in Residence at the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. Gabriel Urrutia been an immense supporter of ours from the beginning, and we look forward to working together in the years ahead!

Happy New Year from the Bacardi Center of Excellence! We are thrilled to highlight a few of our recent graduates, who have successfully completed their journey at the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. These students are applying the invaluable experiential education they learned within the program, and their degree, to their current roles within the industry. We are looking forward to their impact on the Hospitality Industry! Alexandra Poit: Operations Manager of the Bacardi Ocho Lounge at the Kaseya Center Anthony Pe?as: Lead Bartender at J & C Oyster Yelnya Gonzalez Medina: Opening Team Bartender at Swizzle Ft. Lauderdale Yasmine Tesone: Barista Trainer for Lavazza North America

Thank you to all the incredible students who made this past year at the Bacardi Center of Excellence unforgettable! Wrapping up 2024 on a high note has us even more excited for what’s ahead in 2025. Here’s to more innovation, learning, and success!?????? ?? Gabriella Ramos,Isabella Perez, Yasmine Tesone, Yelnya Gonzalez Medina, Ian Gonzalez, Jonathan Paredes, Victor Uceda-Vereau, Anthony Pe?as, Zaria Collymore, Aanchal Khemlani, Samantha Vanegas, Alexandra Poit, Raphael Ceballos,Yumeka Miura, Natalie Garcia, Fabiola Quereguan

??Exciting moments continue to unfold as the semester comes to a close! We had the incredible privilege of hosting john s. cicero, VP and Matthew Tiddes Group Director of TEAM as guest lecturers in our Beverage Marketing and Distribution course led by Professor Gabriel Urrutia. Their guest lecture delved into the impactful work their company does, the journey of climbing the career ladder in the beverage industry, and the seamless connection between experiential marketing and beverage distribution. With their extensive experience collaborating with industry leaders like SGWS and Bacardi, they brought invaluable insights and real-world expertise to our classroom.?? A huge thank-you to John and Matt for inspiring our students and leaving them with a deeper understanding of the industry they are so passionate about!??

Thank you Frank LaRusso (AST) for his constant support through experiential education, FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management future hospitality leaders will make waves because of it!