Hampden - 8 years - 46%
Hampden Estate is one of Jamaica 's oldest sugar plantations. It dates back to 1753 when the estate was owned by Mr. Archibald Stirling of Scotland. In 1779 Mr Sterling built the Hampden Great House, the ground floor of which served as a rum store until the early 1900s. The Farquarson family ran the estate producing sugar and rum until 2003 when at which time it became the property of the Jamaica Sugar Company. The estate is reputed to have the best sugarcane land in Jamaica, producing the most tons of sugar from ground sugarcane. At the time, Hampden rums were exclusively exported to Europe, England and Scotland. In 2009, Everglades Farms Ltd. , owned by the Hussey family , acquired the estate via a public offering through divestment proceedings of the assets of the Jamaican government-owned Jamaica Sugar Company. Since the acquisition, Everglades Farms has invested heavily in the rum brewery, created jobs throughout the town of Trelawny, and provided significant infrastructure to more than 17 communities and schools.
The water used in making its rums is not supplied from underground aquifers, but via its own mountain water harvesting system , and after use returns only clean water to the earth. Prolonged fermentation occurs with natural yeasts . Hampden Estate is one of the last distilleries that still uses batch distillation to produce its rums; it currently has four operational stills. The oldest is a John Dore, which was installed in 1960 and can hold 7,560 litres. The rums are aged tropically ; both rums are aged for more than 7 years in the tropical Jamaican climate, which is equivalent to 25 years of aging in Europe. Hampden rums are produced, aged and bottled without any additives , added sugar, tannins, caramel or glycerin.
This 8-year-old is a traditional molasses rum, aged entirely in a tropical climate.
