Hampden Estate 8-Year

The taste took some getting used to. As a relatively new rum enthousiast it felt stronger then 46%. Will have to try it again.

Very smooth and ice taste. Notes of fresh grass and sugar cane juice. Finish medium to long. Not too dry. 100% pot still, no added sugar or color, as all rum should be.

This stuff is delicious and is a great introduction to Hampden Estate rums. My first jump into this style of Jamaican rum too I'd like to add.

Colour is golden. On the nose it is powerful. This rum does not mess about. Initially, I got a strong varnish smell. But as I let it breathe I found it opened up. I got notes of funky tropical fruit and bananas. Its quite fun picking up these funky notes that you won't get in other rums (again a very new experience for me). The flavour profile is silky, woody, tobacco, ripened banana, a gentle sweetness that roles into very dry. A lovely long finish that lingers. I have enjoyed this as a sipping rum but would be curious to try in a few cocktails as specified by Hampden on the website.

Cheers!

I finally ran across a bottle of Hampden in one of my favorite liquor stores today. I did not read all of the fine print on the bottle until I got home. All I can say after reading it is that if this is what Jamaican rums tasted like in the 1800's, then I am sure glad that some master blenders have figured out a way to greatly improve on the flavors.

The nose reminded me of many of the Plantation rums, but then the taste was all burn and chemicals hiding any tropical flavors. At 92 proof and being a pot still rum, I compared this one to my Smith & Cross pot still rum at 114 proof. No comparison! The Smith & Cross has lots of tropical flavors with an even less noticeable burn. As an added bonus, Smith & Cross is slightly more than half of what I paid for this one. I don't dare use this Hampden for Mai Tai's. Honestly, I will probably use it after I have sipped on too many of my fine rums and don't want to waste any more of them with a foggy judgement. Adding an ice cube to the snifter of this did not even help. This one was also not cheap at $50.

Later that same night, I drank about four ounces on the rocks to help me get through watching a miserable football game. It was not a pleasant experience at all, but the next day showed absolutely no bad effects at all. Thank this part for the no additives. So, if all you want is a nasty tasting buzz with no penalty afterwards, then spend a nice chunk of change on this one. I would rather suffer a bit the next day after drinking a really tasty rum.

Update: After a half bottle is finally gone, I can only conclude that this rum was made for getting shit faced with absolutely no penalty the next day. I thank Luca for showing us all how awful pirate rums really tasted a few hundred years ago.

So why did I give it a high rating of 5 if I hate it? There are many more rums that taste a lot worse than this one, which it is at least bearable, but not worth the price. As a matter of fact, Don Q Cristal has absolutely no taste at all which makes it better tasting than this one, and at one fifth the price. Both have no hangover effect.

Update April 27, 2021: Thinking that I started out on a bad choice for my first Hampden rum while also liking my recent acquisition of their Rum Fire Overproof very much, I did quite a bit of research into their other products since several are now available nearby. I have now come to the conclusion that most of the Hampden rum fanatics come from the European market while most of the rum fanatics from the USA like myself refuse to fall for this marketing ploy.

Foul. Soap suds and lavender. Don’t even know if there was any burn because all I could taste was soap.

Might as well be whiskey.

Rancid.

Rum squisito come pochi altri. Giamaicano allo stato puro, una perla per pochi, fortunatamente non per tutti.

You can smell the funk, though less so than something more powerful like Smith & Cross. It’s clear that the taste is unaltered, nice to have a good clean rum. More exciting than Appleton in my opinion, though not too exciting. I definitely prefer some more excitement in the way of flavours but I really don’t mind this at all.

Mon premier Jamaïquain, forcément ça marque. Mais les prix sont devenus fou ces derniers temps.

At a moderate 46° and "middle" ester count this is a perfect introduction to the Jamaican pot-still rums. This one is typical of what Hampden is with pineapple, green olives and a hint of varnish/glue (which may seem weird to newcomers but it works perfectly in this style of rum) but with a more easy, smooth, rounded side than some extreme high ester bottles. An "easy" Jamaican I would say, but still typical. You could compare that to peated whisky : love it or hate it, but if you want to discover peated whiskies you propably won't start with a heavily peated one. But back to Hampden : even after having tasted a lot of Jamaican rums, I still enjoy this quite affordable bottle.

:-)
Colour is very light.
Smell is strong
Taste is to a kick
Aftertaste is a Wau
Tasted at romtasting Oksbøl
;-)