Ten Cane 14 year 2008 Rum Artesanal (58.2%)

N: of the three this has the most of that wintry, sloe character I love in Ten Cane. Syrupy pine, cool woody spice

P: wintry wood and spice and blue fruit. Cool Mint Listerine. So cool and fresh, but richly woody and spiced too

88

Ten Cane 13 year 2008 Romdeluxe (64%)

N: plum, juniper, some cooling mint, but a more sugary core

P: sweet, whole winter spices, plum, and juniper. Many of the same virtues as the Rum Artesanal, but less distinctly expressed, more rummy, so to speak. Perhaps more spice and licorice, and sweeter

85

Ten Cane 15 year 2008 RumClub Ed. 42 (64.3%)

N: left turn here, this one is quite smoky. Not an entirely pleasant smoke either, at least at first, more of a burned, yeasty sort from off fermentation than peat or bbq…but it grows on me as I recalibrate from “Ten Cane” to something heavier. Decidedly more like a different Trinidad distillate or a demerara than what I expected

P: again quite smoky, and fairly sweet too, with toasted or even burned spices, burned brown sugar, chimney smoke on a wintry night. A hint of peach, like peach tea crossed with Lapsang souchang. The fermenty smoke is off-character for Ten Cane and I don’t know what to make of it, but I can’t quite call it “flawed.” Doesn’t feel as hot as the Rom De Luxe neat, but it improves more with water.

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