THE BEST SUMMER BOOKS FOR 2023 [2/5]

HAMPDEN ESTATE HLCF CLASSIC

Keeping a book on the shelf without having read it is wasting money on surfaces where dust collects. It’s the same with the cars in the garage that collectors collect just to be admired by others, as well as with the rums and other spirits on the shelf. Many will say that it is an investment in the future, value growth, etc. But where is that future? The future is uncertain, we don’t know what and when it will bring us. For yesterday, this moment today was the future, now it is already the past. Earlier we realize that, earlier we are gonna enjoy life .

In other words, let’s stop living in the future today so that we don’t have to live in the past tomorrow. Already today, we need to get into that car, which we keep so much for some better days, and start driving while the days are sunny and beautiful. Take that book from the shelf, sit on the beach and start reading it. Or simply open a “book” and pour yourself a glass of rum and toast to today. 

To this moment!

NOSE

The most important moments in our lives are memorized by the smell, and very often the smell, aroma of something will bring us to a certain memory. Immediately after opening “the book” the scent of the paper inside gives us an introduction that this is gonna be one special experience. And it is. As soon as the bottle was opened and the gold-brown liquor touched the Riedel glass from the package, the scent of HLCF Classic overflowed the room. At the same time when nose wanted to approach into the glass alcohol vapors gave as a slightly slow down, like they want to say to us:

“Slow down, this is not an ordinary rum. This is a real thing!”

And that’s 100% true. This rum shows us right at the beginning his character with a diversity of scents and flavors that are coming to our noses. Overripe pineapple and banana, lots of red berries. Sour cherries with a hint of almond are coming through the essence of molasses.  

Briefly, it is a connoisseur rum. This “book” is for professional readers and it comes from its every pore.

PALATE

Like the long-awaited kiss of a person who initially resists that kiss, but it is clear to both that the desire is stronger than the barrier that the alcoholic vapors from the bottle try to prevent us from. This book is a love story too, and we are blushing while we read it.

In the palate range of tasting there are no goosebumps, but that is the first feeling when we try 60% strong or better to say passionate rum.

Smooth passion with diversity of fruit flavors. From pineapple and apple  all the way to grapes, berries and nutmeg. 

After a few drops of water touched the rum, rum changed its character. It opened more, and became sweeter and more intense. It offered us some plum notes, probably hidden in terrior of Trelawny Parish, and lots of orange notes. This is a serious book full of hidden meanings, and the more we read it the more we find out about it and about ourselves.

FINISH

We don’t want to finish this, and that is exactly what this “book” offers us. Neverending story. Long-last dry finish filled with oak, the taste of rotten fruits from extended fermentation, hints of smoke, or is it just the fire from us. Because everyone feels the fire and warmth of the rum long after. It would be wrong to call this a finish, because it is more than finish, it is an impression.

Following instructions from the book, we add a large ice cube into this beautiful crystal Riedel glass. Our experience with ice and rum was always questionable, and most of the time rum was better without it. But let’s go by the book…

To summarize this part we can only say words of praise to Hampden Estate HLCF Classic. We can call it rum, we can call it a book, but one thing is surely clear- it is an impression!