Hampden RA Elements Burke‘s Rum

Hampden of Trelawny is the loudest high-ester house in Jamaica, and this Burke's Rum release from Germany's Rum Artesanal catches the spirit young and raw, just two years old and barely coloured. Rum Artesanal works in the unsweetened full-proof tradition, and here it gives the distillery's pot still character almost no time to settle before bottling.

Distilled on the double-retort pot still from molasses and given a sherry finish, it is bottled unsweetened at a fierce 69.8%. The sherry influence is subtle, leaving the stage to gluey esters, overripe pineapple and fermented tropical fruit on the nose, then more ester, overripe fruit and a honeyed, pineapple-led finish. This is raw Hampden energy at overproof strength, dry and astringent enough to challenge taken neat yet still surprisingly sippable for the ABV. It comes into its own as a high-impact mixer, the backbone of an atomic daiquiri, funk for those who like it young and loud.