Acquired taste
Hampden x Great House 2023
Sipping tips: When you pick this up, I implore you to chew your food before swallowing. Most spirits taste harsh if you down them immediately (shots): you’re blasting your palette and taste buds with high-proof alcohol. Take a small swig, let the liquid sit in your mouth, and hug every crevice for 4-5 seconds (open the taste buds). Down it. You’ll pick up all the flavors and truly know what the beverage tastes like. Once you do that 1-2 times, your palette is ready. Drink away. And to my NY’ers, I am sorry for all that wild language.
In previous pieces, I dished out all types of promises about how the Great House 2023 write-up would delve into the history of Hampden and uncover more about the owners, among other things. It won’t for a couple of reasons (ain’t get lazy, promise) –
The pieces on A Jamaican Plantation (Part 1 & 2) have given me so much depth regarding Worthy Park’s journey. If I only have cursory information to work with (this is in regard to Hampden’s history), then I’ll have to save the “deep dive” for a more appropriate time/article.
The Great House 2023 is not my favorite, so I wouldn’t want to do the dive here anyhow.
On #1, Part 2 took me almost a month to write. Tiyad!
Someone, anyone, pen a book on Hampden. I’ll read and write about it.
Part A – Nothing but the feels.
Okay, I’ll start with this – I appreciate the rum for what it is (production methodology, uniqueness, etc.). It is distinctively Hampden. No argument there. Great House 2023 smells like spoiled fruit that is appetizing to sniff. Don’t smell too hard, the Great House 2023 will nose you back.
For the average drinker, but especially that of the non-rum drinking variety, this would be completely unapproachable, in my opinion. First sip will have a Jamaican overproof touch (in the stereotypical 63% sense) and taste that the non-initiated will find overbearing. Finish that off with the medicinal thing going on…I can’t see someone saying, “Yup, this tastes great.” Feels like spicy nail polish. Feet fetish people, relax. If you take a capful of water and hydrogen peroxide, gargle it for a minute, which, I’ll add, is good for your oral health, and spit it out, there will be a lingering taste. That lingering taste is Hampden’s Great House 2023.
A touch of this on the palette will make someone do that face-twist-up thing I find annoying (read: only when grown men do it…what the hell are you doing?). But this tends to be the case when people are first trying lightly aged rums, especially Jamaican ones, that have (what I call) a “golden taste.” Great House 2023 isn’t bad, that’s not what I’m saying, it’s just not a “beginner’s rum.”
This was my first try of that product series, so I was a bit thrown off by it. Tried the rum many, many times. Without ice the first couple of tries, and then with ice once or twice to see if my opinion would change. It didn’t.
Rum lovers, I don’t need to tell you to grab this, you’ve already tried it. Non-rum people, drink the Hampden 8 — if you want something aged — first. The non-blended, lowest ester marque will feel a bit more manageable than a blend of their higher marques.
I have vague recollections that Great House 2024 was a bit better than 2023, while Great House 2022 was miles ahead of 2023 and 2024. Raw memory. Don’t have more than that. I hope to try them all. Even better if side by side so that I can do a proper assessment. For what it’s worth, 2022 – 2024 were all consumed at the source: Trelawny and Kingston (Jamaica).
Part B – Historical, technical.
Not this time.
Till next time.
Cheers and #rumresponsibly
