The most collectible rum being made today comes from two estates: Foursquare in Barbados, where Richard Seale blends pot and column rums and adds nothing — no sugar, no color, no flavoring — and Hampden Estate in Jamaica, pot-distilling high-ester rum the way it has since 1753. If you want to buy estate rum online, Del Mesa Liquor, a family-owned liquor store in San Diego, California, has both houses on the shelf in its rum collection, plus a cask-strength single barrel distilled here in San Diego. Every bottle below is in stock and available to order online at Del Mesa Liquor today.
Barbados: the Foursquare Exceptional Cask Selection
- Foursquare Rum Distillery Convocation — $154.99 (2 in stock). Mark XXVIII of the Exceptional Cask Selection: a blend of two 14-year-old molasses rums — one aged in ex-bourbon casks, one in ex-Madeira casks — distilled, aged and blended entirely at Foursquare in St. Philip and bottled at 62% ABV (124 proof) with no added sugar, color or filtration. Dried fruit and nutty Madeira depth over a vanilla-oak backbone.
- Foursquare Rum Distillery Mandamus — $159.99 (4 in stock). Mark XXIX, and the newest ECS on our shelf: a 16-year-old single blended rum double-matured 10 years in ex-bourbon barrels, then 6 years in ex-port pipes, bottled at 57% ABV (114 proof). Only the third Foursquare release ever to see port casks — the name is Latin for "we command," and at 16 years it has earned it.
Jamaica: Hampden's Great House editions — and a San Diego barrel
- Hampden Estate Great House Distillery Edition 2024 — $149.99 (6 in stock). The sixth annual Great House edition: a pure single Jamaican rum at 57% ABV (114 proof) blending the LFCH, HGML and high-ester DOK marks from the 2018, 2020 and 2021 vintages, all tropically aged in ex-bourbon casks. Wild-yeast fermentation and copper double retort pot stills give it Hampden's signature funk — ripe banana, pineapple and solvent-bright fruit.
- Hampden Estate Great House Distillery Edition 2023 — $169.99 (2 in stock). The fifth annual Great House release, for the vertical: 100% pot still, molasses-based, tropically aged in ex-bourbon casks with nothing added, bottled at 57% ABV (114 proof) in an edition of 5,739 bottles. Tasting the 2023 and 2024 side by side is the fastest education in Jamaican rum there is — our aged rum guide covers the older end of the same shelf.
- Cutwater Spirits Three Sheets Cask Strength Rum — $89.99 (3 in stock). The hometown barrel: a single-barrel rum distilled in San Diego from evaporated cane sugar (not molasses), aged in char #3 American oak and bottled undiluted at full cask strength — typically around 128 proof, varying barrel to barrel — hand-numbered as a limited edition. It is the rawest pour in this guide and the only one made in California.
Drink the Foursquares neat with a splash of water to open the cask strength, and give the Hampdens a long rest in the glass — the esters keep unfolding for half an hour. Rum also anchors half the classics in our rum cocktail recipes, though these five bottles are wasted on anything but a clean glass. Learn more about the store on our about page.
Frequently asked questions
What makes Foursquare rum special?
Foursquare is a family-owned Barbados estate distillery where Master Distiller Richard Seale blends pot and column still molasses rums and bottles them with no added sugar, color or flavoring. Its Exceptional Cask Selection releases — like Convocation (Mark XXVIII) and Mandamus (Mark XXIX) — are numbered, limited and aged entirely in Barbados.
What is high-ester Jamaican rum?
Rum fermented for a long time with wild yeasts to build very high levels of esters, the compounds behind Jamaican rum's intense tropical-fruit funk. Hampden Estate marks its rums by ester level — the Great House 2024 blends LFCH, HGML and the very high-ester DOK mark — and distills them entirely in pot stills.
What does cask strength rum mean?
Rum bottled at the proof it came out of the barrel, without dilution. Cutwater's Three Sheets Cask Strength is a single barrel bottled at typically around 128 proof (it varies by barrel), and Foursquare Convocation is bottled at 124 proof — add water a few drops at a time to find your proof.
Where can I buy Foursquare and Hampden rum online?
At Del Mesa Liquor — Foursquare Convocation ($154.99) and Mandamus ($159.99), Hampden Great House 2024 ($149.99) and 2023 ($169.99), and Cutwater Three Sheets Cask Strength ($89.99) are all in stock and available to order online at Del Mesa Liquor.