Touring Jamaica's Renowned Rum Distilleries Pt. 2

In part two of this 'Destination Drinking' newsletter on The Tipsy Traveler, I share a collection of images from my rum-filled trip to Jamaica with The Whisky Exchange with some contextual tidbits.

The ‘Destination Drinking’ section on The Tipsy Traveler is designed to inspire your next trip or visit to a range of places around the world. Expect city guides, place-oriented stories, personal travel essays, hotel and bar reviews, and general travel lifestyle tips for the tipsy traveler.

Note: this photo-heavy newsletter is best viewed on Substack as it’ll exceed the email length for inboxes.

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This newsletter is part one of two. For the intro and terminology context, please refer to ‘Touring Jamaica's Renowned Rum Distilleries Pt. 1’.

I hope you enjoy reading about the rest of my extraordinary Jamaican rum tour, and that you’re inspired to plan your own rum-filled excursion whenever you make it to Jamaica. Or, at the very least, are inspired to try some of the rum for yourself; in which case, leave me a comment and I’ll be happy to provide some recommendations!

Appleton Estate

The biggest of all the Jamaican rum brands, and easily the most polished. The visitor center was one that you’d expect at a bourbon distillery; the tasting rooms were gorgeous; the shop was filled with all the rum and swag; and the café was a nice place to enjoy some nibbles as well. Appleton’s master blender Joy Spence, the world’s first female master blender, guided us through our tasting and brand 101 and toured us around the property. She’s a legend in the spirits industry and is the drinks equivalent of hanging out with David Beckham (if you’re a football/soccer fan). It was a privilege to be in her company, and I think we were all fan-girling a bit.

We blended our own rums using aged components from the pot and column stills, tasted rum straight from the barrel, saw the four massive pot stills (some of the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, and the biggest in the Caribbean), and finished by bottling our own private cask bottle of rum in the shop which you can only get at the distillery.

We out here at Appleton Estate.

It wouldn’t be a distillery welcome without a rum punch.

Pot still heaven.

A masterclass by the one and only Joy Spence. A spirits industry icon.

Various blending components for creating our own blend. It was a competition that I didn’t win, or even rank in the top 3, but the hilarious thing was that our driver won. He blended his rum based off smell and color. Brilliant. We all lost it when we found out his was the best, according to Joy.

Family photo. Joy allowed us to taste two cask strength rums. What a privilege. It almost feels dreamlike upon reflection.

Clarendon and Long Pond Distilleries

I’ve bucketed these two distilleries together because they’re both partially owned by the National Rums of Jamaica (NRJ), and rums from both distilleries are blended to create Monymusk — a range which we tasted at Clarendon. (If you’re curious to learn more about the relationship of these two distilleries, a colleague of mine and the world’s best rum writer Matt Pietrek, aka the Cocktail Wonk, does an excellent job at explaining here. Thanks, Matt!)

At Clarendon, an industrial distillery that sells the majority of its rum in bulk to liquor powerhouses such as Diageo who bottle it under their own labels (Captain Morgan and Myer’s), we learned about production methods at scale. The column still was three stories high, the fermentation tanks were also appropriately massive, and the show never stopped with the distillery running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Seeing as it was our first stop on the Jamaican rum tour, it was definitely a good place to start as everything was clear, organized, transparent and relatively straightforward. The Monymusk range was a delight to taste, with the overproof being a particular standout in addition to the 5 year old rum (which included some liquid from Long Pond).

At Long Pond, things were a touch more rustic. While the fermentation tanks were relatively new as they were replaced after a fire that destroyed the old ones in 2018, the rest of the distillery, from the grounds to the stills, oozed of an old Jamaican distillery that produces that high-hogo, funky rum. Indeed, Long Pond, along with Hampden Estate, produces some of the country’s highest ester rums (Long Pond’s TECC marque reaches the legal ester count limit of 1600). One look into the otherworldly active ferments in the tanks, and you can get a good gist of the types of rum being produced at the distillery. There’s plenty more to say from a technical perspective, but that’s not what we’re here for. I will say, however, that I tasted my favorite rum of the trip at Long Pond — an uber rare, 18 year old single cask rum bottled at 60% ABV. It was a spiritual experience (pun intended), and I’ll think about that liquid for a long, long time.

First photo at a distillery in Jamaica! Fun fact: I sweat so much that someone asked if I’d poured water over my head. Yeah, it was that hot there.

Clarendon distillery from another angle.

The massive column stills at Clarendon. I’m glad we didn’t have to walk up to the top.

The CEO of the National Rums of Jamaica showcasing the new packaging for Monymusk Plantation rum. This bottling, the 5 year old, was my favorite of the range.

Family photo! It was a special tour and tasting experience.

The production data board for all my rum nerds.

At Long Pond Distillery showing off this exceptional rum. It was so good that I contemplated running off with the bottle (half kidding).

The Long Pond team and a very pleased Dawn Davies. I mean, how could you not be with some of that delicious juice in-hand?

Long Pond’s new fermentation tanks.

The otherworldly ferment.

Another look inside a fermentation tank.