Zacapa Centenario was created in 1976 to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Zacapa, a town in eastern Guatemala. It was the result of the hard work and dedication of a doctor and chemist named Alejandro Burgaleta, who mastered the blending, stabilization and maturing processes of long-aged rums to create the first limited production of Ron Zacapa Centenario.

It is made using the concentrated first-pressing sugar cane juice—called “virgin sugar cane honey” by the company—and is aged and blended using the solera method traditionally used for sherries. This solera aging system is dynamic; as the blended rums pass through four different types of barrels, the last stage includes barrels that previously aged Pedro Ximenez, an intensely sweet, dark dessert sherry from Jerez, Spain.