Mhoba Beach 151

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 75.5% | Chill filtration: Yes | Colouring: No

Special Features:

Strand 151 is a high-strength blend of MHOBA Select Reserve Glass Cask Rum and Pot Stilled High Ester White Rum. It combines smoky caramel and vanilla from charred American oak with pronounced esters and natural sweetness.

The Glass Cask component acquires its oak influence in large glass demijohns containing American white oak staves. MHOBA cuts and splits these itself, then chars them over wood embers. For Strand 151, this rum is blended with a white high-ester rum.

At 75.5% alcohol, this bottling is exceptionally concentrated. Its base is fresh juice from Nkomazi sugarcane grown on the MHOBA estate; apart from water and contact with oak, no other ingredients are used. The name recalls Knud Strand, the creator of the blend and MHOBA brand ambassador. The number 151 represents its alcohol strength in US proof.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: Pronounced sugarcane and solvent notes lead the nose, accompanied by a little honey, mild spices and resin. With air, the volatile solvent notes recede, allowing chocolate and brioche to become more distinct.
• Palate: On the palate, the high strength manifests itself chiefly as an intense richness of flavour. The sugarcane tastes sweet and cooked down, with a honey-like, oily texture. Solvent notes and very ripe tropical fruits complete the picture.
• Finish: The oily texture persists into the finish and feels even denser. Pastry-like notes mingle with yeast, almonds and fruit kernels.

Distillery/Bottler:

MHOBA produces rum on a sugarcane estate near Malalane in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. The Greaves family has grown sugarcane there since the 1980s. Robert Greaves, a trained mechanical engineer, wanted to develop a distinctive product from the estate’s harvest rather than simply supply it to the sugar industry. Following his first distillation experiments in 2013, he began taking steps towards commercial rum production in 2015.

Greaves designed and built the distillation equipment himself. MHOBA processes fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses and distils in pot stills. This brings its own sugarcane cultivation and rum production together on the same site. Strand 151 is one of the distillery’s own bottlings.

Facts: