Monymusk Overproof White Rum. Monymusk Sugar Estate lies in the South of the island of Jamaica on the Vere Palins in the parish of Clarendon. Rum has been made from Jamaican molasses in this area since the 18th century. Monymusk rum is initially distilled at the ultra modern Clarendon Distillery. The rums in the Monymusk portfolio are then blended and aged at the nearby Innswood facility which was also formerly a distillery but is now a blending and ageing house.

Ownership of the Clarendon and Innswood distilleries has passed back and forward between private and government ownership over the past hundred years. It is now partly owned by National Rums of Jamaica, Diageo and Maison Ferrand. For more details than would be reasonable in a review you can find a lot of detail on both Monymusk and Jamaican rum in general over at the Cocktail Wonk website. And if I have got anything wrong in the above brief write up I am sure the site will clear that up for you.

Monymusk/Clarendon rum is often sold in bulk they only recently brought back their “own brand” of rum, of which this Overproof forms a part of that range. I will endeavour to seek out other rum from the Monymusk brand going forward but importation of the rums in the UK is a bit sporadic at the moment. You will have tried distillate from Clarendon in Captain Morgan’s Jamaica/Original Dark rum. This Overproof rum has only been available since 2011.

This is a white overproof rum. A more familiar White Overproof would be J Wray and Nephew or Rum Bar Overproof from Worthy Park. Monymusk have opted however for a less partisan colour scheme. Red, white and black.Rather than the greens and yellows favoured by those two overproofs.

It is triple distilled and bottled at 63% ABV. A bottle in the UK will set you back between £25-30 for a 70cl. I haven’t been able to find out much else unfortunately even after consulting their own website. Which is something that does make me scratch my head. It’s also disappointing but perhaps not that surprising that I struggled to find any other reviews of this rum. I do get the feeling the “brand” could do with a big kick up the bottom.

In the glass the rum is entirely clear rum – clearly unaged and as “white” as they come. On first nosing you get a lot of sweet alcohol and some quite surprisingly rich molasses notes. It doesn’t have much funk on the nose at all. It’s surprisingly one dimensional and just smells of young sweet but strong booze.

There are perhaps hints of toffee and coconut lurking but it doesn’t really do much for me.

Sipping the rum at full strength you are left with little else really. No Jamaican funk, no grassy notes again just sweet young alcohol. Toffee and some brown sugar making it more like a Demerara rum than a Jamaican.

For such a strong rum it really isn’t all that impressive on the finish. Its just a boozy hit really all the way down. It just makes your tongue tingle and your throat burn.

Mixing the rum I’m just reminded enormously of Captain Morgan’s Dark Rum (not the Spiced one thankfully) but it even lacks the more treacly notes of that one. It’s a million miles away from J Wray or Rum Bar. It even makes Appleton 12 seem relatively funky.

A Jamaican rum that has had all the Jamaican sucked out of it. Overall as a strong, relatively inexpensive white rum it’s okay. Problem is the Jamaican Overproof’s it competes directly with are SO much better.

It may be that in triple distilling this rum they have taken all the funk out of it. Maybe they wanted to produce something different to the usual Jamaican Overproof’s. They’ve certainly done that. Just a shame its not much cop.