Raising Glasses Trinidads: Guardians TDL 2014, Jablesse TDL 2003 reviews

I'd been wanting to taste out more stuff from Raising Glasses after a very good session from a few months ago (   • New Raising Glasses: Matugga "Dhahabu," Ro...   ), and I'd also been meaning to break into the Trinidad Distillers Limited bottlings that have been stacking up in the review queue. So why not both? TDL is a huge distillery in Laventille just east of Port of Spain, and the last major active distillery in Trinidad after the deaths of Caroni and Ten Cane. If they ran full out they could make around 27 million liters of pure alcohol per year - smaller than Bacardi but at least in the same order of magnitude - and the majority of that goes to their Angostura rums, their bitters, and local products like White Oak. And for the most part, if I'm totally honest, I could care less. However, some of it makes it out to NDPs and independent bottlers, and that is when this stuff has its chance to shine: Scarlet Ibis has its problems (   • Scarlet Ibis Trinidad Rum review   ) but might still be one of the better molasses-and-column-still offerings on US shelves at its price point, and I still occasionally have dreams about that monster of a TCRL from a few years ago (   • Weird Column Rum Roundup: XXX/3 AFD v. TCR...   ). And now the fine folks in Boston have bottled some, so let's taste it: TDL "Guardians" 2014 8 Year Old Trinidad Rum (Angostura distillery, bottled by Raising Glasses; column-distilled molasses, 6 years tropical aging, 2 years UK aging in bourbon barrels, bottled circa 2023; 67.9% ABV), 87/100 TDL "Jablesse" 2003 21 Year Old Trinidad Rum (Angostura distillery, bottled by Raising Glasses; column-distilled molasses, 15 years tropical aging, 6 years UK aging, bottled circa 2025; 61.4% ABV), 89💧/100 Both of these are terrific, about as good as you can get from multi-column rums with these kinds of stats. The Guardians is a spicy boy, driven by cola and coffee on the nose but turning more herbaceous and peppery on the palate. Killer. The Jablesse is a bit trickier: you really need a good dollop of water to get the palate presence working the way it should, but once it does you're getting a medicinal, cough-syrupy dance of herbs and spices and apple (!) and tropical fruits. Water, again, isn't optional, but if you have patience this has a lot to give. Fabulous, both of them, grab the next RG Trinidad with confidence I say. And in the meantime I may need to taste out more TDL... Extra special thanks to my Different Spirits on Patreon (  / differentspirits  ) - Gerard-Paul Aman Eric Amig Anthony Darcy Bean Chris Bobby Jamie Brown Kingsbury bushcraft William Christopher Clematis Rob D Liam Davitt Joe Devine Samuel Dose eon Ingmar nine Manuel Fihman Steve Frazee Ian Gendler Solomon Grundy Patrick Halbig John Halliday Alex Hurd Trevor Jarrait Jonathan Lestingi Kyaru Craig Nielsen Jason Newquist No Thanks Chris Rhodes Randy Rice Lael Rios RumSquirrel Eric Schmidt Gordon W Zach W Mean Will (Also, maybe check out the less-boozy side channel over at    / @criticalspirits   )