Source: Acquired in a trade.
Stats: New Yarmouth is a distillery in Jamaica dating back to the early 1700s. It’s famously the source for Wray & Nephew Overproof, the best selling rum in Jamaica. NYE/HM is the marque given to their rums in the 500 -700 g/hLAA ester range. This expression delivers 585.5 g/hLAA esters. It was made of molasses, fermented for a day and half with a propriety yeast strain, then distilled in New Yarmouth’s small pot stills and bottled at 69% without aging in a run of only 600 bottles.
Nose: Salty! Nail polish remover, grass. With time, cinnamon toast crunch. Maybe some pineapple but not as tropical fruity as I had hoped. Maybe cuz the high proof.
Palate: Really the first thing to hit is the mouthfeel: thick, creamy, and warm. Leaves a burn in the back of the throat and in the stomach. The cinnamon toast crunch comes into play on second sip. Sweet pineapple, mango, olive juice. Maybe a little bit of cigar and day old trash in the background. Despite the high ester count, I’m not getting that classic Jamaican funk characteristic I anticipated. Perhaps I need to dilute this a little next time to bring more flavors out.
Thoughts: I only used half my sample for this tasting so maybe next time I’ll add some water to see if it opens up. I was glad to be able to try this one but I’m not madly in love with it. I could definitely detect what goes into Wray and Nephew Overproof, but I think the reasonable (126) proof of that bottling along with the balance from the column still component makes it more enjoyable. I wouldn’t want to sit and sip on this one, and for the price, would rather just mix with W&N.
Rating: 2
Here’s my scale.
1 – I don’t want this in my mouth ever again
2 – Best used for mixing
3 – Decent sipper
4 – Very enjoyable
5 – I’m buying a back up bottle
Austin Rum Society 