Hampden Estate The 8 Marks Tasting Collection

The 8 Marks Collection is Hampden with the hood open — eight unaged rums, one per marque, in ascending order of esters, and 88 Bamboo says there's nothing better to acquaint yourself with the distillery. Hampden Estate in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica, is the funkiest distillery on earth, and its marques are the codes for its fermentation recipes: OWH, the lightest at 40 to 80 grams of esters per hectoliter; then LFCH, LROK, HLCF, <>H, HGML, C<>H, and DOK, the legendary top of the scale at up to 1,600 — the most ester-dense rum legally produced. Each is made the estate's way — wild fermentation in two-century-old vats, dunder and muck-pit additions, double-retort copper pot stills — and this 2022 collection presents all eight unaged and bottled at a uniform strength, in a set of small bottles in an onyx box with a pamphlet explaining the chemistry; check your label for the ABV. Rum Ratings scores the individual marks from 7.1 to 7.9, with LROK, HGML, and DOK the community favorites. The point is education: tasting OWH's clean cane against DOK's gasoline-and-rotting-pineapple wildness explains every Hampden bottling and every Jamaican blend on earth. Honest note: a collector's and educator's set, unaged and intense — the DOK in particular is not a casual pour. For the rum geek's tasting night, the bartender's training shelf, or the gift for someone who thinks they know Jamaican rum. Eight marks, one distillery, no oak.

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