Molasses

This 12 year old Port Cask finish from Worthy Park in Jamaica is clearly a good rum, but how does it stack up as a work of cask finish auteurship?

This long aged installment in the Appleton Hearts series is deep, fruity, and flavorful, but avoids being over oaked even after 29 years in a cask.

This 20 year old installment in the Appleton Estate Hearts line knows who it is with plenty of flavorful, aged fruity funk.

This lower-ester Hampden is an tasty installment in the Habitation Velier series. While it’s tame by Hampden standards there’s still plenty of fruity-spicy flavor from nose to finish.

This 15 year old pot still rum from Long Pond balances heavy cask notes with moderate Jamaican fruit, and is a neat exemplar of the distillery’s juice before The Fire™.

This 18 year old pot still rum from Appleton Estate is proof that Appleton has range. Banana bread, dried berries, pineapple, leather.

This high-ester installment in Hampden’s annual Great House series is aggressively packed with flavor. Overripe fruits dominate, with spice, vinegar, and vegetal notes in the background.

This 6 year old molasses-based pot still rum from Hampden is sort of the upper-middle class of the ester world. Pineapple, banana, ester, cinnamon.

This 10 year old molasses-based pot still rum from Worthy Park keeps you guessing. Oak, banana, pineapple, brown sugar and allspice.

This 12 year molasses-based pot still rum from Worthy Park is classically handsome. Rich oak, overripe bananas, dried cherries, and a bit of leather.

There may be no rum origin more quintessential than Jamaica. Known for the fresh, fruity and funky flavors produced by long fermentations and pot still distillation, Jamaican rum holds a special place in many spirit enthusiasts hearts, including my own. 16 bottles later, here are my favorite standard release aged Jamaican rums.

This pot column blend from J. Wray & Nephew gave us strong notes molasses and chocolate, with hints of banana, grape, wood, brown sugar, and baking spice.

This pot still rum distilled at Worthy Park in Jamaica and finished in Moscatel casks in Michigan gave us note of overripe banana and pineapple.

This young, pot still rum distilled by Worthy Park gave us notes of overripe banana with hints of butter, pear, flower shop, cinnamon, and ginger.

This molasses based pot still rum from Hampden Estate gave us notes of pineapple, oak and solvent, with hints of coconut, banana, pepper, ginger, mango and dried stone fruit.

This molasses based pot column blend from multiple Jamaican distilleries gave us notes of spices and toasted sugar, with hints of cola, banana, maple, pepper and coffee.

This molasses based pot column blend from Appleton Estate gave us notes of oak and toasted sugar, with notes of caramel, molasses, botanicals, orange peel, cinnamon and vanilla.

This molasses pot column blend from an unknown Jamaican distillery gave us notes of solvent and pineapple, with hints of banana, brown sugar, tea, and oak.

This pot still rum from multiple Jamaican distilleries gave us strong notes of solvent and smoke, with hints of caramel, banana, brine, ginger and medicine.

This pot column blend from multiple Jamaican distilleries gave us notes of banana and baking spice, with hints of chocolate, pie crust, coffee, and rubber.

This pot column blend from multiple Jamaican distilleries gave us notes of tropical fruit and butterscotch, with subtler hints of solvent, strawberry, pineapple, coconut, and baking spice.

This pot still rum from Worthy Park Estate in Jamaica gave us strong notes of toasted sugar and banana, with subtler hints of oak, orange, pineapple, allspice, and vanilla.

This pot column blend from Appleton Estate in Jamaica gave us strong notes of caramel of chocolate, with hints of vanilla, brown sugar, ethanol, bitterness, and molasses.

This unaged pot still distilled by Worthy Park in Jamaica and bottled by Ed Hamilton’s Ministry of Rum gave us notes of butter, grass and sweat, with hints of cream, flowershop, leather, and coconut.

This pot column blend from multiple distilleries in Jamaica gave us notes of molasses and solvent, with subtler hints of pineapple, green apple, caramel, banana bread and vanilla.

This pot column blend from Appleton Estate in Jamaican gave us strong notes of brown sugar and wood, with subtler hints of caramel, cinnamon, pineapple, orange peel and glue.

This iconic pot still rum from multiple Jamaican distilleries gave us strong notes of pineapple and solvent, with subtler hints of acetic acid, berry, smoke, banana, rubber, flower, and ginger.

This pot still rum from Worthy Park in Jamaica gave us strong notes of banana, with subtler hints of cereal, apple, varnish, allspice, coconut, toffee, and oak.