lion's tail

2 oz bourbon
1/2 oz pimento dram
1/2 oz lime
1 tsp gomme (or simple) syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
Shake well over ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Recipe from CocktailDB.

Last night, A and I went to Green Street to check out their new cocktail menu. Their 6-sided über-menu did not appear to change, but their short list was completely updated. The short list contained a lot of the new (or newly available) toys of the trade including pimento (allspice) dram, St. Germain, Batavia Arrack, and Bittermens Bitters.

One of the two I chose last night utilized the dram put out by Haus Alpenz called St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram. Previously, I had only tinkered with this at home. One cocktail I made was the Kingston Heights (1 1/2 oz rum, 1/2 oz kümmel, 1/2 oz orange juice, dash pimento dram) which was rather tasty but light on the allspice goodness; perhaps the potent kümmel also squashed the taste of the allspice liqueur a bit). The other was the Passenger Pigeon which I came up with for our recent bird-themed cocktail party with a rich Calvados balancing out the dram with a dash of Angostura (go to this Drinkboston entry about the drink and the dram). While I enjoyed the flavor, it could have gone a little overboard on the allspiceness and balance for those that aren't as big a fan. Either that or a 1/2 oz of sweet vermouth could have rounded the drink off nicely.

And from those experiences, I was eager to see what others have done with it. Misty's version did not disappoint. The 1849 bourbon and lime juice offered a rich backbone to balance the Allspice Dram quite splendidly. I'm not sure how much simple syrup she used but it seemed like she might have used more than the teaspoon in the CocktailDB recipe above. Combined with the citrus, it was close to but not over my sweetness limits for my relatively dry-seeking palate.