Warming winter cocktails, paradoxically served over ice, are on my mind right now. While the Negroni is still my favorite cocktail, we’re in for a cold spell this week; we’ve just had our first heavy snowfall of the season; events are being canceled again; and it feels like a good time to hunker down and hibernate with this bottle of St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram.
I know some people do Dry January, and feel great. (Maybe some year, if the pandemic is ever over, I’ll try this.) Instead, as a way to recover from holiday excess, I have enlisted my husband, who does the grocery shopping, to try “pantry cooking” with me this month. This means buying only fresh fruit and vegetables and perishables like yogurt, as we did in 2020 when we were supposed to stay home, and cook with what’s on hand in the cupboards, cabinets, and freezers.
Pantry January
Given my current state of mind and with Omicron bearing down, I am starting Pantry January by tackling the liquor cabinet. Since there’s only two of us – the visiting kids having gone back to their respective homes – and we aren’t actually big drinkers, my goal isn’t to empty all the bottles (haha) but to open and at least try the esoteric ones that I bought after browsing through cocktail recipes online or in cookbooks. I hate it when I buy ingredients for a complicated drink made only once, or even worse – never use the ingredient at all because I’ve forgotten where I saw the recipe.
Speaking of forgetting, I completely forgot I had bought this book last year.
Luckily, many of the recipes in Make Me a Cocktail for Christmas are still suitable after the holiday season. (Although I am definitely done with eggnog until next year. And even though my husband might make his homemade coquito again if I asked and we probably have all the ingredients on hand so it would count towards Pantry January, I probably should wait until next Christmas again for that fattening coconut deliciousness.)
Unfortunately, Make Me a Cocktail for Christmas doesn’t include any recipes that call for allspice dram. Nor do any of my other cocktail books. The Internet, to the rescue!
Réveillon – Recipe on Tuxedo No. 2
Flannel – Recipe on Difford’s Guide
Allspice Dram
Allspice dram, also known as “pimento dram,” in case you’ve never heard of it, is a rum-based herbal liqueur flavored with allspice.
I hope I’m not the only one who didn’t know that whole allspice berries are unripened, dried berries from the Pimenta dioica plant, which grows in the Western hemisphere. (The name “allspice” comes from the spice’s having a flavor of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove combined, but it may have turned out to be as confusing as “pimento” is, because it makes people think that ground allspice is actually a combination of other spices.)
In researching the liqueur for this post, I was going to quote Spruce Eats and say that the liqueur’s older, alternative name –”pimento dram” – comes from allspice berries being from the same plant as the red pimentos that get cut up and stuffed into olives, but other websites, such as Brittanica.com, disagree. Allspice and those little red peppers that get stuffed are really from entirely different plants, both of which were named “pepper” by the Spanish (along with many other plants).
One of my Christmas gifts was a cocktail reference guide. I could have saved myself some research time looking up “pimento dram” here!
The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails has this to say about pimento dram:
Pimento dram (sometimes known as “pimento cordial” is a traditional Jamaican liqueur flavored with berries of the pimento tree (Pimenta dioica) commonly known as allspice. Beginning as a folk remedy for diarrhea and cholera, it has been an article of commerce since at least 1850. Pimento dram is made by extracting the lightly fermented, dried berries with a high-proof spirit, most often rum, and adding sugar and lime juice. The resulting liqueur has a flavor reminiscent of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Traditionally it is enjoyed neat, as a cordial or liqueur, but has found some use in cocktails (such as the Lion’s Tail, with bourbon whisky, lime juice, and bitters) due to its unique flavor profile.
The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails
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Oooh, I’m going to have to see if I can get that St. Elizabeth around here. Sounds so warming and perfect for winter.
I have never heard of this, whether you call it allspice or pimento!
It does sound like interesting flavours though!
i have mostly given up drinking these days but i do have a bottle of cherry liqueur lingering in the pantry. always good in a glass of very occasional champers!