What does a reviewer do when they've got a pair of rums - both bottled around 100 British proof, in this case - without obvious sparring partners? Put them together in a head to head, of course.

Today it's a Mhoba, the cane juice-based newcomer from South Africa, up against a more traditional blend of five year old Jamaican stock by French bottlers Compagnie des Indes. The Mhoba at issue is an unusual vatting (dreamed up by Dane Knud Strand, whence the name) of their high-ester stuff, unaged, and their lighter rum, aged not in barrel but in glass casks with oak staves; the CdI, I *think*, is all continentally aged, and I *think* it's all pot still (and I *also* think it's mostly Clarendon/Monymusk and Worthy Park), but there's not a ton of information on the bottle. So this ends up as a bit of a battle between styles, the old way of sourced (albeit really well-made) molasses-based rum blended for balance and bottled by said blenders versus a synthesis of various new trends (cane juice distillation, longer and higher-ester fermentation, estate production - I believe it's all Mhoba's cane in this) bottled by the people making the stuff. The Mhoba, I will note, also has a wonderfully bonkers triple-pot still setup (see here: [ Ссылка ]).

So what happened? Well, stats:

- Compagnie des Indes Jamaica "Navy Strength" Jamaica 5 Year Old Rum (ex-bourbon casks, probably continentally aged, probably all pot-distilled, probably bottled circa 2018, 57% ABV), 85+/100
- Mhoba Strand 101° Pure Single Sugarcane Rum "High Ester & Glass Cask Blend" (Malalane, South Africa; master distiller Robert Greaves; pot-distilled cane juice; batch 2019S5; 58% ABV), 91/100

Don't come away from this thinking the Jamaica is anything less than superb. It strikes me as a kind of happy marriage between Smith and Cross (see [ Ссылка ]) and XXX/Five ([ Ссылка ]), except I like it more than both. You could sip this all night and build a million cocktails on its back. But the Mhoba is something else entirely, not constructed for balance and versatility like the CdI yet also not a "rhum naturel" akin to Grenada's Rivers or the Haitian clairins. This feels like a spirit purpose-built at every step to be loud, rude, and eye-wateringly intense, and the quality's sky high at the same time. Holy crap, it's good.

свернуть