A lot of rum nowadays is marred by misleading marketing, age statements, and additives, since the regulations surrounding the spirit are pretty lax. Myrtle Bank is an independent bottling company that aims to bring high-quality rum to the market with as much transparency as possible. Its name is a reference to the Jamaican Myrtle Bank Hotel, an imposing historic building that was built in the 1800s. The center of Kingston's social scene in the 1920s and '30s, it serves as the inspiration for Myrtle Bank rum. The rum was distilled at Jamaica's Worthy Park Estate using local molasses, cane juice, and crushed cane stalks from the Jamaican highlands. The high-ester mash is naturally fermented over a period of two to three weeks using natural yeast from the cane stalks in two fermenters before being distilled in a traditional Scottish Forsyths copper-pot still. It was then put in ex-bourbon barrels and sent to age for a whole decade in the United Kingdom, where the climate is more suited for longer maturation. This results in fewer tannins being extracted from the wood and less evaporation takes place. Over the years the barrels imparted the rum with tropical fruit, banana, oak, vanilla, and cocoa notes. True to their vision of transparency, there is no coloring or sugar added, and the spirit is bottled at cask-strength (120 proof) to preserve its full flavor. Distilled in 2009 and bottled in 2020, this single-estate, single-cask rum is a unique and complex sipper that is bound to please lovers of Jamaican rum. Grab a bottle today!