Was Lemonhart imported rum?

[rockydog101]

Hi all,

I guess I don't really understand the rum business. As I understand, Hamilton rums imports rum from some company (in Guyana?) that makes rum, and then Ed bottles it and sells it. Correct?

Was Lemon Hart the same? Or did they actually distill their own? If not, is there any reason that someone can't import the same rum as a different name? Not saying that I want to do that but I'm just trying to understand the business.

[jrl915]

Strange question, if you're not interested in importing.

[thefatrumpirate]

Nothing strange about it at all import interests or not.

Rum is sold in bulk (in Europe a lot of rum is housed and sold on in the Netherlands) from many distilleries around the world. Much of this rum is then used in blends.

How Ed obtains his Demerara rum I don't know (its unlikely he will reveal that information). However, would it be possible for two companies to get the same rum and bottle as is under different names.....yes and no doubt it happens.

I've every confidence Ed will be aware of the difference between Lemon Hart 151 and his new Hamilton rum.

[Edward Hamilton]

Both Lemon Hart and my blend of rums distilled by Demerara Distillers Limited is imported to Canada and the US respectively and then bottled under the Lemon Hart and Hamilton labels.

According to the distiller, my blend is up to five years old, but I have never been able to confirm an age over three years for the Lemon Hart blend but that is subject to change. In May of last year, Mosaiq, the Lemon Hart brand owner made the marketing decision to stop importing Lemon Hart 151 to the US. Unfortunately, they would never sell me any Lemon Hart 80 proof, so it was nearly impossible to build their brand in the US.

Earlier this year I bottled the first batch of my Hamilton Overproof rum and discovered that although the word Demerara appears on a number of different rums, Demerara Distillers Limited owns a trademark on that word.

I have removed the word 'Demerara' from my label and replaced it by the phrase, "Distilled and Aged on the banks of the Demerara River." I have asked if DDL owns a trademark in the US or any other country for the words "Demerara River" and to this date have not received a response.

I found it interesting that DDL claims they can't license me to use the word 'Demerara' on my label because they have no control over my bottling. The reality is that they don't have any control over any of the other brands of rum with the Demerara on their label either, but that another discussion for another day.

I regret making the mistake of putting the word 'Demerara' on my Hamilton brand rum, and have done everything I could to remove any mention of tha product on my website or any other media over which I have control including Youtube videos, which is why if you found a link for a video with Jeff Berry or anyone else you won't find the video.

Once the next bottling is complete, I will post more information about my brand.

[rockydog101]

Thank you for this informative post.

Are bulk blends "exclusive" or "copyrighted?" For example, could someone contact DDL and ask for the same blend you're bottling as Hamilton 151? Or when you wanted to get this blend, and knowing the USA had lost LH151, did you ask for a blend close to that of a Lemon Harts? (By the way, thank you kindly from bottom of my heart for getting an overproof Demerara back in the market so quickly. That was an insanely awesome thing to do, and you did it efficiently, quickly, and with extremely high quality.) Or did you fly down to DDL and work with the, on a blend that had the flavors you wanted?

I find this all fascinating. I had previously thought like there was a Lemon Hart distillery that was making its own rum. But it was produced by DDL.