Post #762303 by Hurricane Hayward on Tue, Apr 12, 2016 10:18 AM

On 2016-04-12 08:41, JenTiki wrote:

Robert A. Burr: "The official line is that Lemon Hart 151 has not changed from the original formula, but clearly, to me, the Hamilton (red label) version was inferior. That may be related to the fact that my original bottles have aged in glass for a few years. In any case, the company insists that the new Lemon Hart 151 is the same as the previous versions. Tasters will voice their own opinions when they (have) product is in hand."

Hamilton is not the same as the Red Label Lemon Hart. Yes, they were made by the same distillers, but the formula, labels, etc were quite different. They even made Ed Hamilton take the word "Demerara" off his labels. LH yellow label, LH red label, and Hamilton are all significantly different in flavor. And saying the "new Lemon Hart 151 is the same as the previous versions" makes no sense since there were different versions. My question is ... which previous version?

There's a bit of confusion. The reference to "Hamilton," I think, was a reference to the red label Lemon Hart (imported by Ed Hamilton). The Hamilton 151 rum from Guyana is a different product (though very similar) and not part of the discussion. I'm not surprised that the Lemon Hart company line denies any differences in the previous versions, but we know better.

The worry is that the new Lemon Hart 151 that's about to be released will be more like the "red label" version (which is considered the inferior of all the recent bottlings) and less like the old "yellow label" product (which tends to be most people's favorite).

I did a taste test of both Lemon Hart labels and the new Hamilton rum, and I tend to agree. Though to my palate the differences aren't that great:
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2012/05/08/rums-of-the-mai-kai-legendary-lemon-hart-returns-to-the-promised-land/#151-compare

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2016-04-12 10:20 ]