Hampden Estate 8 Year Pure Single Jamaican Rum

HAMPDEN ESTATE SHOWDOWN Hampden Estate 8 Year Pure Single Jamaican Rum Hampden Estate HCLF Classic I’ve always enjoyed rum, and about a decade ago began exploring it more seriously, trying numerous bottles. Last summer I visited Jamaica, and in addition to experiencing the obligatory Appleton Estate offerings, I stumbled upon Hampden Estate at a tasting where I was staying. I instantly fell in love with the “hogo funk” which Hampden is famous for. It’s tantamount to Islay’s peat: like an acquired taste, both are distinctive, and I suspect similarly polarizing (anecdotally confirmed by one of my drinking buddies). What “burning hospital” is to Laphroaig, “rotting roadside fruit with scavenger residue” is to Hampden. Hampden Estate has several other bottlings, but these two are all I have (for now). I hope that will change but they’re not widely available. Hampden Estate 8 Year Pure Single Jamaican Rum Deep amber color. As soon as I poured, the aromatics jumped out of the glass. Once you’ve experienced hogo funk, it’s forever seared into your taste memory. Overripe banana. Molasses vinegar. Guava. Sour cherries. Papaya (pawpaw in Jamaica). Carrot cake. A whiff of acetone. Nutmeg. Licorice. Yeast rolls. Pomander. Peppercorns. Caramelized sugar. Noticeable alcohol, despite the sub-50% ABV. Love usually involves a little crazy. Hampden is my new bae. Like Jamaica’s mountains, Hampden is rugged, rustic, natural, and full of surprises. The heat is a little out of whack with the otherworldly flavor profile, which prevents the rating from being higher. Would I buy it again? 100%. 4.25 on the Distiller scale. 46% ABV. 8-year age statement. No added sugars or coloring. NB All spirits tasted neat in a Glencairn glass. Hampden Estate HCLF Classic Amber in color, albeit a shade lighter than the 8 Year. The HCLF Classic is the 8-year on steroids, even if it is four years younger (unlike bourbon, the flavors here are less oak-barrel influenced than they are from the natural yeasts and dunder and “muck”). All of the descriptors in the 8-year are present. The overripe banana and yeast rolls are more intense (I’m not a chemist, and I don’t think diacetyl is an ester, but there is a round, almost buttery, diacetyl-like component here that provides a fullness, or roundness). That molasses vinegar, umami-esque like soy vinegar with fried pork dumplings, is also there. The fruits are in the background, less prominently. Despite the much higher proof, alcohol is better integrated than the 8-year. Finish of warm baked banana bread goes on for days. I’d be willing to bet I’ll still be tasting this on my tongue in the morning, like a good cigar. Would I buy it again? I’d fight you for a bottle. 4.5+ on the Distiller scale. 60% ABV. 400-600 gr/HLPA. 4-year age statement. No added sugars or coloring. NB All spirits tasted neat in a Glencairn glass.

Funked up caramel, overripe fruit skins nose. Cherry cough syrup, wax candy. Overripe banana. Drying. Viscous, burnt finish.