Rest & Be Thankful Long Pond ITP 1998 24 Year Old 58.5% Alc Single Cask #1758 Jamaican Rum 700mL

There is a reason serious rum collectors talk about Long Pond the way whisky collectors talk about old Karuizawa. The distillery operates on its own terms — traditional pot still production, official Jamaican mark designations, and a history stretching back centuries. When an independent bottler of Rest & Be Thankful's caliber finds a cask like #1758 and gives it 24 years to fully mature — first in the tropical heat of Jamaica, then transported to Scotland for continental aging — the result is a rum that belongs in the conversation alongside the finest aged spirits in the world, regardless of category.

190 bottles exist. This is one of them.

The Cask: #1758

Distilled in 1998 on the Iron Trelawny Pot still. Aged for over 24 years in an American oak bourbon barrel — beginning its life in the tropical climate of Jamaica, where the heat accelerates extraction and amplifies the rum's character, before being transported to Scotland for the second phase of continental aging, where cooler temperatures slow the process and allow integration, refinement, and elegance to take hold.

Bottled in Scotland, September 2022. 190 bottles worldwide. Cask strength. Un-chill filtered. No coloring. No additives. Nothing between you and 24 years of work.

Tasting Note

Nose: The ITP mark's character announces itself with quiet intensity — this is not a rum that shouts. The tropical aging lays the foundation: fresh mango, ripe pineapple, and overripe stone fruit arrive first, lifted by a bright citrus note and the faintest trace of solvent that serious Jamaican rum drinkers will recognize immediately as quality, not flaw. The continental aging adds the second act — warm vanilla, soft oak spice, dried tropical fruit, and a deepening honeyed sweetness that suggests the rum has found its equilibrium after two decades of dialogue between the barrel and the spirit. Ginger, wildflowers, and a whisper of fresh sugarcane linger quietly underneath.

Palate: Richer and more structured than the nose suggests — the 24 years in wood have built genuine depth without sacrificing the distillery's signature aromatic character. The entry is smooth and surprisingly composed for the proof, opening into a mid-palate of candied tropical fruit, toasted vanilla, and warm demerara sugar. The ITP ester profile begins to assert itself through the middle of the sip — ripe pineapple and fresh melon concentrate into something almost confited, surrounded by warm oak tannins, soft spice, and a subtle leather note that speaks to the age. The pot still weight is present throughout, giving every sip a density and presence that column still rum simply cannot replicate.

Finish: Long, clean, and persistently evolving. The fruit gives way slowly to toasted oak, dry spice, and a last trace of tropical warmth that fades over minutes rather than seconds. The ITP mark's ester character resurfaces gently at the very end — a final, quiet reminder of where this rum came from and how long it waited before arriving in this glass. Satisfying from the first sip to the last exhale.