Review #55: Habitation Velier Forsyths Worthy Park 2005

We recently visited Zombie Village, a new tiki bar in San Francisco with a few folks we’d just met over at Bourbon and Branch. Checking out the Rum menu we spotted a few rums with titles (and pricepoints) that would likely only appear to seasoned rum nerds.

Habitation Velier Forsyths WP 2005 – Pure Single Jamaican Rum. The name of the product just rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it? Just to breakdown what the name actually means. Habitation Velier is a bottler of Caribbean rum from some of my favorite distilleries. Forsyths obviously refers to the Scottish still manufacturer, and WP is shorthand for Worthy Park, a Jamaican distillery that produces some funky rums. Lastly, 2005 is the year of the run. This is significant since Worthy Park reopened in 2005, so must have been one of the first runs off the new still.

We also spotted another WP rum, and a Hampden estate rum, so this was a great way to try a lineup of Jamaican rums we haven’t tried before. Having had a few WP rums, I strongly suspected I’d prefer the Hampden to the WP, as it had a more appealing, signature funk.

Quick overview of our scoring system

Additional Information

• ABV: 57.8%
• Molasses based rum from Worthy Park cane estate.
• No added sugar (dosage).
• Angel’s Share >64% (ouch!)

About Worthy Park

• Distilling on the Worthy Park site started in 1741 and ran continuously until the 1960s. The modern distillery opened in 2005 and put out its first bottlings in 2007.
• Worthy Park can produce light or high ester rum.
• Mostly sold in market under the “Rum Bar” brand, though it also appears under other independent bottlers, and increasingly aged expressions are appearing as Worthy Park.
• One of the most modern distilling operations in Jamaica. The can processing
• Check out the Cocktail Wonk’s article on their distillery for a more comprehensive explanation.