It's been slightly over a year since the release of Hampden Estate's 8 Marks Collection 2022 - a series of unaged rums that really serves to give a snapshot of the styles you can come to expect from Hampden.

It's in this collection that Hampden showcases their rum making prowess, using molasses and everything in between (and more!) to make a series of rums with increasing ester levels. If there's any collection you have to acquaint yourself with Hampden, there's really nothing better than the collection. 

The Hampden The 8 Marks Collection 2022 comes in an onyx box, compared to this year's maroon pink.

So, what's up with the Hampden The 8 Mark Collection 2024 version? This time, it's the exact same eight rums, each denoted with a mark (more on that in a bit or you could read here), but aged in an ex-bourbon barrel for 1 year each. This was an exploration in how the rums would have evolved within one year across the board. We've had the chance to taste this evolution with Daniele Biondi from Velier at the soon-to-be-open Madame Bar, who has given an in-depth masterclass on all things Hampden and about The 8 Marks collection.

Chemistry nerds, you'll want to stick around for this read.

Daniele Biondi introducing the new collection at the soon to be open Bar Madame.

Before we dive right into the rums however, let's go over some lore and science.

We've covered much of Hampden's fascinating history in our deep dive here together with the macabre yet fascinating way they go about making their rums, but in short: Hampden hails from the jungles within Trelawny Parish in the north corner of Jamaica, having been distilling rums since the 1753. Hampden is well known (some would say notorious) for its exceedingly funky, potent rums - credited to the high ester content in the rums that stands out even amongst Jamaican rums.

The Great House of the Hampden Estate was built in 1779 and the centerpiece of the distillery. Source: Hampden Estate

The way they do this lies largely in an infinite-soup-esque method when it comes to fermenting the molasses and sugarcane juice.

One, dunder, the leftover residue from rum distillation, is often added back to the fermentation vats. Two, muck, the leftover residue from the fermentation, are placed into "muck graves", alongside spoiled fruit and other vegetal matter to be broken down by bacteria. The constant upcycling of these biomaterial, alongside open air fermentation vats, allows bacteria to feast on the matter and produce a whole range of organic acids and molecules, some which recombine into esters.

It's these esters that give the rums much of their character - aromatic chemical compounds that gives our brain the perception that we are eating certain fruits of flavours

Dan showed us a video taken by one of the distillery's staff that demonstrates the "live fermentation", and it looked nothing short of a witch's brew from a cartoon.

Does this mean that Hampden Estate only produces what Dan calls "ester nuclear bombs"? No! In fact, how ester-y a rum is depends largely on for whom the rum was produced for. Back during the colonial era, much of Hampden's rums was meant to be sold outside of Jamaica - to marketeers, distributors, blenders, clients, sailors, and even perfume makers in Europe.

The high ester counts of the rum was the result of these market forces - the blenders in Europe wanted higher ester rums to be blended with other cheaper, easily available types of spirit that were available.

Dan was particularly proud to show off an order sheet for Jamaican rums, dating all the way back to 1928.

A big hand behind this trend would be the curious case of the Jamaican Rum-Verschnitt. Germany was a big importer of these rums during the late 1800s, being a hit amongst the people. However, the love for rum halfway across the globe had led to the decline of domestically produced spirits.

In a protectionist move, the German government imposed huge import duties on foreign spirits.This included the beloved flavourful Jamaican rum. 

An example of Jamaican Rum Verschnitt. Source: ddr-museum.de

A workaround German blending houses found was to get a barrel of high ester rum, as back then, it was believed that high esters meant more flavour (which while reductive, wasn't entirely wrong either). Using said high ester rum, German blenders would blend the rum imported from Jamaica with German-made neutral spirit, and repackaged the rum as Jamaican Rum - more specifically, Jamaica Rum Verschnitt.

Profit was to be made, where at times, 90% of the blend was just neutral grain spirit, with the other 10% being this secret sauce.

An excerpt detailing the ongoing practice in Germany from a report by the West India Royal Commission; 1897.

The demand for high ester rum was booming - with more esters in the rum, blenders could get away with adding less to their blends. An arms race of sorts started amongst the Jamaican rum producers, where a chemist eventually found a way to create rums as high as 6,000 gr/hlAA.

Only a few rum distilleries were capable of this feat however, some hailing from Trelawny.

The credit for the 6,000 gr/hlAA ester rum breakthrough has been attributed to H. H. Cousins in 1906. Source: Boston Apothecary.

By the 1930s, the Jamaican rum market was oversaturated with cheap rum that had no demand - some blamed it on the high ester rums. The Jamaican government had to intervene and put an end to this never-ending ester race, with the help of the Rum Pool, a body of rum producers that coordinated in 1932. The Rum (Ether) Control Order of 1935 was passed, which limited the ester content to be capped at 1,600 gr/hlAA".

To this day, this order is still in effect, with Hampden Estate, Long Pond and New Yarmouth being the only rum distilleries that produce this absolute-limit ester rum.

A "marked" barrel in Hampden Estate. Note the acronym "HLCF". Source: Velier

Now, having had a recap of Jamaica's history with ester counts, let's talk marks - the star of the show today (again, whilst reductive as each mark is stylistically different, they can however be segmented by their corresponding ester counts for the sake of simplicity). For most of Jamaican rum history, distilleries produce a wide range of rum distillates in various styles, each having their own methodology to produce, their own flavour and aroma profile, chemical make-up and so on. To indicate which batch was what and how much esters was in it, marks were used - painted onto barrels to indicate the characteristics of the batch type.

In a sense, marks were pre-determined formulae of rum that could efficiently communicate with buyers what they could expect in the rum. This would be like a car manufacturer producing a range of different cars, that whilst materially different in say size or number of seats, could nevertheless be segmented by top speed.

The acronyms, what they mean, and their corresponding ester levels. Source: Hampden Estate

Here's where Hampden's Estate 8 Marks come from.

The Hampden Estate uses eight different acronyms to identify their rum distillates. Each of these eight marks, as you could see on the table below, is named after influential figures in Hampden's history, which are currently registered with Jamaican regulatory bodies and are set in stone.

Dan mentions that OWH, LFCH and LROK are relative new marks, but HLCF and beyond were marks that existed in Hampden's lineup since the late 1800s.

Breaking these babies out!

That brings us to today's tasting!

As much as Dan is fascinated in discovering tasty rums, he is on another level of geek. For the batch of The 8 Marks Collection, Dan commissioned a whole chemical analysis for the constituents in the rum - anything from esters, terpenes, aldehydes; pretty much any chemical that wasn't water or ethanol was discovered and analysed.

The 8 Mark Collection (the blue box) came with a big tasting mat, which itself was a treasure trove of information on how the rum was made, how long the fermentation lasted for, and oh-so-descriptive chemical breakdowns.

Entirely fascinating findings! The sheer dedication of Dan and the Velier team is just absolute!

This time, in the 2024 version, all of the distillates were aged in ex-bourbon casks for one year, proofed down to 52% ABV. Here, Dan repeated the same chemical analysis again, looking from a technical standpoint how the rums have evolved in the barrel.

The big finding was this - the ester composition of the rums themselves hasn't really changed due to aging. However, interactions with the barrel introduced more flavours to the rum, in particular due to a host of phenols and other organic compounds that were extracted from the wood of the barrel. Dan noticed that for the HLCF in particular, which was high in esters that gave it a highly distinctive pineapple and banana flavours, the barrel influenced introduced many flavours that complimented well with those esters.

The menu for tonight! A head to head of some of the key marks from Hampden's range.

For those who love in-depth chemical breakdowns, Dan will indulge you if you pick up a box of the 2024 The 8 Marks Collection - the pamphlet that comes with it has doubled in size, containing even more juicy details and comparisons about the rums.

For the masterclass, we've had three pairs of rums: the OWH, HLCF and DOK,  from the unaged 2022 collection and the 2024 ex-bourbon one year aged collection each. Whilst not the full set of all 8 marks, this gives us a snapshot of the lightest end of the ester range (with the OWH), to somewhere in the middle (with the HLCF), and then finally the heaviest end of the spectrum (with the DOK). Here goes!

Hampden OWH Mark Unaged vs 1 Year Ex-Bourbon Aged

First up, we have the OWH Mark, which is at the lighest end of the Hampden ester range, with 40-80 gr/HLPA of esters. OWH is an acronym for Outram W. Hussey, whose family today owns the Hampden distillery.

Hampden OWH Mark Unaged Tasting Notes

Aroma: Green apples, pears (especially the core), green banana skin, even some sprigs of gooseberry. A little bit of white sugar leading into simple sugar syrup. With time, notes of sliced vegetable, particularly cucumber.

Taste: Juicy! Instantly, top notes of freshly juiced sugarcane - the overtly sweet, syrupy flavour. There is some savouriness, reminiscent of vegetal broth. Pops of green fruits too - green apple skins and kiwi, with more sips, I start to unearth white-fleshy fruits, like water chestnuts and water pears. 

Finish: More on the fleshy sort of tropical fruits - papaya, overripe banana, and alongside, some brininess as well. It stays pretty fresh and clean for the most part, maintaining these flavours, and evolves to a wet stone like flavour on the finish. 

My Thoughts: Clean, approachable, with very enjoyable bright aromas and flavours. It's pretty harmonious with nothing particularly sticking out. Worth noting is that the aromas and flavours very nicely combine to make a tasty expression - with that savouriness adding an edge and character to the rum. With the fresh, vibrant fruit aromas and flavour, this is definitely a very approachable and delicious in its own right. 

Hampden OWH Mark 1 Year Ex-Bourbon Tasting Notes

Aroma: Really nice aromas of dried coconuts, dried pineapple, and dried papaya chunks - like opening a bag of tropical nut mix. There is some of that raw-nutty rancio aroma as well, particularly, slivers of almonds, figs, and chunks of raw walnuts. With time some light brown sugar aromas make their way up, alongside that fleshy sweet aroma of sliced bananas. Interestingly, a tinge of fresh bandages. 

Taste: A syrupy flavour envelops the palate right away: golden corn syrup and apple pie filling, followed by a refreshing, light yet tart-sweet flavour of sweet green apples. There's some caramelised bananas as well - where the hard shell of caramelised sugar is mixed in with cooked bananas.

Finish: A very light baking spice rounds off the earlier notes, mostly allspice and cinnamon powder. As it sits, the spice flavour develops closer to cinnamon sugar - half white, half brown, with a light dusting of spice. 

My Thoughts: It's surprising how the rum has evolved - becoming much more syrupy, dense and noticeably thicker in both texture and taste. Nothing too crazy or leftfield here, still very approachable - a really enjoyable rum that's meant for easy drinking. To me, it's that uncomplicated dose of nostalgic sweet flavours packaged in a rum that soothes after a long day. If only we had bottles of the stuff available for grabs!

Hampden HLCF Mark Unaged vs 1 Year Ex-Bourbon Aged

Now we come to somewhere middle of the range of Hampden's marks, this is the HLCF, which stands for Hampden Light Continental Flavoured, and weighs in at 400-600 gr/HLPA in terms of ester count.

Hampden HLCF Mark Unaged Tasting Notes

Aroma: Opens up with a slight lambic funkiness - quite similar to those Belgian raspberry flavoured lambic beers. With time, that veil dissipates, with fresh sugarcane juice aromas opening up - fresh, grassy fragrance from freshly pressed juice. Even a hint of bruised pandan in the mix. The more vibrant aromas start to arise after the initial sweet-grass fragrance, like lemon tea, green apples and pear. 

Taste: Quite abit of sweetness, interestingly, also some earthiness here, like sweet potato skins, ripe bananas, apple flavours, as well as some cooked brown sugars.

Finish: The finish is relatively gentle, being quite rich in the grassy, stemmy flavours of fresh sugarcane juice. Some crispy, just ripened pear on the finish as well - where that fleshy pomme fruit flavours is just about to ripen but not quite, still lightly tart and sweet.

My Thoughts: I think this is where you really start to see much more character - the sugarcane juice really takes the centre stage here, tossing up fresh, herbaceous and dense fragrances and flavours on the palate. Definitely out of the trio, this was my favourite - simply delicious and very moreish. 

Hampden HLCF Mark 1 Year Ex-Bourbon Tasting Notes

Aroma: Compared to the aged OWH, there seems to be a much more prominent cask influence on the nose - a whole blend of baking spices like nutmeg, clove, star anise. There is a cake-y aroma to the nose, which reminds me of a toasted, heavily spiced banana cake, lebkuchen (German gingerbread), and some canned peach cake. 

Taste: A robust, spiced caramelised banana pudding and lightly grilled pineapple makes up the bulk of the flavour. There is some greenness on the palate still, giving fresh green apples and ripened pears. 

Finish: A great sense of balance here - a long lasting flavour of syrupy, herbaceous sweetness from pressed sugar cane that intertwines with apple pie filling with a sprinkle of baking spices.

My Thoughts: An exemplary balancing act - still retaining so much character of the sugarcane juices and green fresh notes on the palate, yet at the same time, you get that satisfying cooked, spiced sweetness from the barrel aging. You truly get the best of both worlds here - no need to choose! Out of all the rums, this was the instant favourite.  

Hampden DOK Mark Unaged vs 1 Year Ex-Bourbon Aged

We're now all the way at the other end of the Hampden spectrum, with the most ester loaded DOK mark! The DOK has been cause for great excitement as of late, even though traditionally it isn't a mark necessarily seen as being the most representative of the Hampden style, which at its most classical, is meant to be a harmonious blend of various marks. Nevertheless it'll be a great experiment to see how things evolve along the marks and also with a year of ageing!

DOK itself is another acronym (as with all marks) for Dermot Owen Kelly, a key proprietor of the Hampden Estate at the turn of the 20th century.

Hampden DOK Mark Unaged Tasting Notes

Aroma: We're in proper funkytown here - UHU glue aromas at first, but after sitting for a bit, a lot more ripe pineapple - imagine that burst of sweet sticky nectar right after slicing into the fruit. There is some banana mash, as well as a concentrated lychee extract like aroma that lingers alongside the strong funky esters. 

Taste: Right away grilled pineapples, especially the charred bits intermingling with the warmed up juice. After that burst of pineapple, it's roasted peanuts, bubblegum, and banana hard candy. 

Finish: On the finish, you pretty much get a whole host of bruised tropical fruits - overripe mangoes, bruised mangosteens. There is a dense, vegetal matter sort of aroma on the finish as well, like days old mounds of cut grass. 

My Thoughts: Well, normally you don't taste something this high in esters - but from a technical standpoint (as Dan did emphasise), it's quite eye opening how some of the ester compounds differ compared to the other formulae. For me, that concentrated, almost isolated pocket of pineapple aromas and flavours were really intriguing - it sticks out and stays out, even when the other components of the rum ebb and flow out of the tasting. 

Hampden DOK Mark 1 Year Ex-Bourbon Tasting Notes

Aroma: You still get funky esters on the nose, this time much more tempered however. There is demerara sugar fragrance that holds down that varnish aroma, followed by other aromas of cola syrup, juiced apples, freshly peeled bananas, and spots of passionfruit pulp. 

Taste: The rum comes off strongly with pomme fruit flavours at fist - sliced apples, bruised pears. It then turns to that fleshy, falling apart pieces of mangosteen, which has a meat-ish flavour. 

Finish: Here is where things get more aromatic. I got some jasmine flowers at first, followed by apple skins, lychee rinds and fresh coconut flesh. As the finish develops within the palate, green fresh aromas and flavours develop instead, like green apple and even green apple candy. 

My Thoughts: What a development! I didn't quite expect to get so much fresh green apple flavours in the finish, and somehow ironically, it's more vibrant than its fresh counterpart. This one definitely needs some patience, from sipping to waiting and letting more flavours and aromas - definitely worth a try (and frankly, it's quite tasty despite the sky-high ester count)!  

@vernoncelli