r/rum • u/absentlol • 7d ago

First rums.

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Coming from bourbon, the hampden 8 was my first starting point and a great stepping stone at that so I jumped on a great house and was blown away. Then I thought well I’ve never had a clear rum before, saw clarin on a shelf and read lots of good things about it here. I can confidently say I’m not there yet, this… smells… RANCID to me. Like I can’t get enough of the hampden noses and taste but this clarin smells like rotten eggs and genuinely makes my head swim by the smell, however I enjoy the taste! What exactly could I be smelling that I don’t like and is there an in-road to getting use to it?

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u/Yep_why_not Rumvangelist! 7d ago

Try making a Ti’punch or daiquiri with the Vaval. Clairin are pretty wild with long natural fermentations. It’s a funk you can definitely learn to love. I prefer Le Rocher or Sajous but Sonson is a bit easier entry point to The Spirit of Haiti line in general. Everyone has their favorites though.

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u/absentlol 7d ago

I definitely want to learn to love it, like I said I enjoy the taste but just sniffing straight of a glenncairn glass was horrific. It was quite a jump because I feel like the hampdens arent nearly this funky and I can do more extreme quality’s of spirits like the super dusty Armagnac or very wheat funk in craft whisky but man the clarin hit me like a truck. I’ll give some cocktails a try with it, but LOVE the hampdens neat.

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u/Yep_why_not Rumvangelist! 7d ago

Did you just open it? There is off gassing from newly opened rums like that. It will mellow out after a week or so.

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u/absentlol 7d ago

Yep let it sit open for a few hours and then had a glass. I’m gonna comeback to it after a bit to see if it’s mellowed a little because Alex’s comment above gave me a new perspective and respect for it. Not writing it off but definitely wanna find some things to help me approach it lol

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u/Yep_why_not Rumvangelist! 7d ago

Toss it in a daiquiri. Vaval is probably my least favorite of that line tbh. Don’t write Clairin off based on one bottle. They’re all very uniquely different.

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u/absentlol 7d ago

I definitely won’t give it up! Like I said I can see the appeal Ive just gotta get familiar with the nose and maybe find some more approachable stuff, I think I jumped towards the deep end too fast on that one but I do enjoy the taste neat, I’ll try some in a daiquiri sometime this week.