THE BRAND

Long Pond, a neighbor of Hampden, has prospered in Trelawny since 1753, gradually swallowing up the surrounding plantations. Rum production developed alongside sugar production, although today the sugar mill and distillery belong to different owners. The Long Pond distillery has had several owners. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was Scottish, a firm that acquired well-known estates along the way, such as Cambridge and Belmont. In the 1950s, the giant Seagram bought the whole thing, giving it the opportunity to enrich its then-young house blend, Captain Morgan, with a heavy rum. It's worth noting that this type of rum, which now arrives here in its raw state, was used almost exclusively by various blenders and other brokers. Seagram continued the expansion, with the acquisition of Vale Royal in 1955. Twenty years later, following bad investments, the giant would founder, the state then nationalized rum production and renamed the distillery 'The National Sugar Company of Long Pond Limited'. However, there would be an opening and sharing of assets at the very end of the 20th century. The National Rums Of Jamaica LTD worked in conjunction with the Demerara Distillers Limited of Guyana, as well as the famous French Maison Ferrand, also owner of the Plantation brand. The modern history of Long Pond is turbulent, since in 2012 it had to close its doors in order to modernize its facilities. It reopened in 2017, but a fire in the sugarcane fields surrounding the distillery spread to the fermentation tanks, as well as to the storage tanks for the newly produced rums, in July 2018. Fortunately, since the aging process is not done on site, but in cellars near the Jamaican capital, it was never at risk. Since the style of the distillery is largely linked to the fermentation method, there was reason to fear for the muck reserve, especially since it is located in direct proximity to the tanks, but fate would have it also remain intact. Of course, the copper storage tanks and the wooden fermentation tanks will have to be rebuilt identically. This is why new fermentations will resume using the Clarendon tanks, also owned by the state, and will be transported to Long Pond for distillation.