I've grown tired of whiskey, so I'm switching to Rum. These are my first bottles based on a quick search here and limited availability at the liquor store.

Greetings, Rum Freaks!

Today we’re cracking into a collaboration I’ve been fantasizing about for a long time. Hampden Estate x Laphroaig. Yes, you read that correctly. Hampden’s C<>H marque, aged entirely in a Laphroaig cask. High ester funk meets Islay peat. Two distilleries with absolutely zero interest in being subtle, getting together to make what I can only assume is a war crime against the olfactory senses. Here are a bunch of specs because I know you Hampden Estate people need them!

• Mark / Marque: C<>H
• Ester Level: 1300-1400g/hlap
• Distillation Year: 2023
• Bottling Year: 2024
• Age: 1 Year (Fully matured at Hampden)
• Cask Type: Single Ex-Laphroaig Whisky Cask
• ABV / Strength: 64.1% ABV
• Outturn: Ultra-limited 285 bottles worldwide
• Production Style: 100% Heavy Pot Still, Molasses, wild fermentation with dunder!

Nose: Butterscotch, surprisingly friendly esters (nose hairs still intact), bread pudding, and custard.

Top: Jk, those esters are spicy as fuck shawty. Butterscotch concentrate and tongue numbing heat.

Mid: Like the 2010 BP oil spill, this one’s all seawater and oil baby! Sorry… 😬 Anyways, iodine, brine, and thick, heavy tannins are setting up camp for the long haul.

Finish: The Islay peat is subtle but present. Little smokiness on the inhale, but a healthy dose of Laphroaig on the exhale. Intermittent bursts of that Islay mesquite-iness make an appearance, but ultimately, the esters are the most formidable opponent in here.

Conclusion: A true rum lover’s (or alcoholic’s) rum! Massive personality: boozy, funky, and occasionally peaty. The Islay influence is subtle, but the tango between these two worlds is absolutely bumbaclot sublime!!

Score: 91.5/100

Hello Friends,

Welcome back to another Alambique Serrano review, today we have another bottle that escaped me for far too long, Single Cask #23: Californios. Before it made its way into my collection, the cane juice that made this rum was left o ferment in stainless steel tanks before being distilled by Axel & William Krassel via their 8-plate column still in 2021. It then spent 28 months in a wet ex-bourbon cask afterwards being poured into 144 bottles at an ABV of 52.8% for the reasturant Californios that was recently upgraded 3 Michelin Stars.

Nose: A minorly astringent orange with bell pepper, honey, and tobacco following.

Taste: Cane sugar lingers on your tounge while a small amount of oak and barrel char appear. Dry candy but theres a bit of an astringent vegatable note, but overall the taste is very light.

Finish: A lot more of that aforementioned cane sugar, a good amount of spice that slowly turns into an incredibly hot cane sugar syrup that sits in your chest for a minute. There is more of that barrel char and hints of the bourbon that was once in this cask.

Overall: 6/10, I would put this higher but that astringent note occasionally returns at my dismay. Sometime this pour comes off as very light.

Disclaimer: I did receive some help from folks in the industry to acquire this bottle but paid the full retail cost for it.

Republished from https://phenomenologyofspirits.com/2026/10/15/three-young-worthy-park/

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Worthy Park 9 year Rest & Be Thankful Wu Dram Clan/Kirsch (50%)
N: caramel and butterscotch and peanut butter cookie subdue fruity esters (pineapple, green strawberry). With water: greener and fruitier, soursop or guava
P: sharper and spicier than 50% would suggest, and also drier and more watery than the nose. Peanuts and butterscotch again. But not so sweet, and there’s grainy, dusty young wood. I’m missing some of the fruit, though. With water (just a single drop) this hits a sweet spot. Not distinctive, but good
84

Worthy Park 5 year 2016 Transcontinental Rum Line (57.2%)
N: Peanut butter cookies again, more oily industrial notes and less fruit, but initially more muted in all dimensions. That changes some with air: even more peanut butter batter, dirt and grass, oil. With water: sweeter, caramel
P: softer entry than the R&BT, with the alcohol emerging only on the finish. Not much fruit here, but still those peanut butter cookies and the industrial side, some grass and metal. With water: again, sweeter, actually much sweeter, and the industrial stuff is smoothed down. Almond extract
82

Worthy Park 9 year 2015 Bedford Park bourbon barrel no. 4 (60.8%)
N: back to butterscotch and caramel, with a deeper woody side, not dark or tannic but cedar and sandalwood. The fruit this time is closer to stone fruit than berry but still some pineapple too. With water: banana, and more stone fruit, and some herbs
P: the deepest and most expressive of the flight. Aromatic woods and barky spice, just-ripe stone fruit and stemmy pineapple, butterscotch. With water: a little more of everything. Salty caramel corn, flambéed banana, a hint of bubblegum even. Certainly the worthiest of these Worthy Parks
86

I love rum cocktails and a good daquri with El Dorado 8. I have planteray original dark atm and basically through the bottle. Alabama has some trash selection so Im probably gona make my way up to Nashville or something and get a bit more liqour freedom. Any suggestions that you guys love that isnt too Jamaican funky? I got other bottles that cover that for sure. Maybe a rum agricole to finally try but idk what has age in that category

I hear Rum is getting more popular, so decided to pick up a bottle and see what the hype is all about.

Overall, it's okay. Really sweet for a liquor and just kinda tastes like ethanol and vanilla.