Pimento Dram

[limewine]

Inspired by Dr. Cocktail's declaration last year that pimento dram is "the most important liqueur in the world" (in his NYTimes profile), I've been determined ever since to get my hands on some. Since a trip to Jamaica just isn't in the cards, and the stuff doesn't seem to be imported on any reliable basis, I finally broke down and made my own batch, using the recipe Chuck Taggart posted on his Gumbo Pages.

It's finally ready, and it tastes divine. Lots of allspice flavor in a gentle rum & brown sugar base. (How close is it to the original? I have no idea--I've never tasted the original, but that's not for lack of trying.) But now I'm trying to figure out good ways to use it.

Cocktail DB lists around a dozen recipes; a few of them sound promising. But has anybody here played around with pimento dram in cocktails? What's a good way to mix it, so that I can fully agree with Doc's declaration?

Thanks--

[mumkin]

Hey, swell! I hadn't seen Chuck's recipe for the mysterious Pimento Dram, but it's now duly noted. I've never mixed anything with it -- Pimento Dram in Oregon? unpossible! -- but looking at the DB, I think my first choice for experimentation would be the None But The Brave, which seem to rely on it the most. Hell of a name -- a cursory glance doesn't show it in any books I have -- but from the ingredients it sounds a grand autumnal drink.

[gethin]

Are there any UK based e-gulleteers who might be interested in a bottle or two of Pimento Dram. Its not normally imported here but I've been chatting to some really helpful people at Wray and Nephew who are looking at bringing over a case or two.

Not sure I'll want a whole case myself, so if there is anyone else interested I can let them know if W & N can come up with the goods.

Gethin

[Morgan_Weber]

I've done some searching through old threads in order to find this topic, to no avail. If I'm being redundant, admins I apologize.

I just received a bottle of Wray & Nephew's Pimento Liqueur and was wondering if anyone has some favorite recipes that show it off?

Thanks.

[bostonapothecary]

its kind of like the benedictine of the country side... rustic, simple, delicious... i'd use it where you would use benedictine...

variously spirited sours make bottles of it disapear very quickly around here...

[thirtyoneknots]

I've done some searching through old threads in order to find this topic, to no avail.  If I'm being redundant, admins I apologize. 

I just received a bottle of Wray & Nephew's Pimento Liqueur and was wondering if anyone has some favorite recipes that show it off?

Thanks.

←

Good one to have around this time of year, try it in Mr. Taggart's Reveillon:

2 oz Applejack or Calvados (Bonded Applejack works best here)

1/2 oz pear eau-de-vie*

1/2 oz pimento dram

1/4 oz favorite red vermouth or Punt e Mes (or slightly more to taste)

2 generous dashes favorite aromatic bitters

stir/strain/up

Beautiful drink for the Christmas season, and a lovely showcase for the allspice liqueur that one has made or been so lucky to acquire. It's a wee on the sweet side, but not unbearably so, and certainly not so much as to be inappropriate to have before dinner.

-Andy

*I have used Brizard Poire William, which is sweetened, in lieu of dry eau-de-vie, and it worked fine since the liqueur is not terribly sweet as those things go.

[Chris Amirault]

Two questions. Has anyone tried Chad Solomon and Christy Pope's recipe here in Imbibe? And has anyone whipped up a batch based on this, Taggart's or another's recipe and compared the homemade to the Wray & Nephew?

[limewine]

Two questions. Has anyone tried Chad Solomon and Christy Pope's recipe here in Imbibe? And has anyone whipped up a batch based on this, Taggart's or another's recipe and compared the homemade to the Wray & Nephew?

←

I haven't tried Chad & Christy's recipe, but I have done side-by-side comparisons between Chuck Taggart's recipe and the Wray & Nephew. The commercial version is a little smoother in flavor, with more edge taken off the spice, and it has a thicker mouthfeel (glycerin?). Mixing, though, I like the homemade -- the more ragged allspice flavor carries through in the cocktail better, IMHO.

Also, I recently dug out a bottle of the Taggart formula that had been aging for two years (read: I found a bottle I'd forgotten about at the back of the liquor cabinet). It does mellow more over time, and thicker mouthfeel aside, I think flavorwise it's almost indistinguishable from the W&N.

Of course, I'm now waiting anxiously to see how the Alpenz allspice dram works out. Tasted a prototype in July, and it was pretty good, much spicier and more "alive" than the W&N.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm having a devil of a time finding any demerara 151 rum. I can get the Lemon Hart 80 or the Bacardi 151, though. Thoughts on going halvesies?

[thirtyoneknots]

As delicious as Demerara rum is, I actually don't like it in this. I find I have much better results using ~13 oz each of Wray & Nephew White Overproof and the same amount of some inexpensive dark Jamaican rum like Meyers'. My ultimate recipe is to infuse the crushed allspice in the W&N then strain and add to the Meyers and add the same amount of sugar (1.5 lbs) to perhaps 1-1.5 cups of water, then mix everything together and add water to make 51 oz. This should result in 2 bottles of 50 proof liqueur, with a much more mixing-friendly rum as the base, which really does carry over into the different applications. In my own extraordinarily humble opinion, this final product is every bit as good as the Wray & Nephew Berry Hill stuff I have (particularly after being rested), though very, very slightly different, as a different brand might be. For about $30-40 one can produce four 750 ml bottles, can't beat that.

-Andy

[limewine]

'Course, this whole "making your own" point may be moot come February, when Haus Alpenz rolls out their St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram in New York & Massachusetts.

[bostonapothecary]

'Course, this whole "making your own" point may be moot come February, when Haus Alpenz rolls out their St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram in New York & Massachusetts.

←

i make mine with wray and nephews overproof that i dilute to 100 proof or so with another rum then i infuse with allspice powder from crushing the whole berries for 10 days. i sugar to 36 brix with brown sugar. the idea was to get something with cointreau style sugar and alcohol...

i'd like to find some sort of boutique source of the spice so i know i have quality and intensity... right now i only use the product from christina's spice shop in cambridge... anyone have a cool source?

[eas]

I would guess that when 'making your own' moves away from necessity, we may see even greater variety and personalization in home production. Even with 3 or 4 Nocini on the market, many of us still make our own, and it's no less a joy to make and share!

[Chris Amirault]

All right, I'm taking one for the team here. I just put up the following to steep for a couple of weeks:

1 c Lemon Hart 80 proof demerara rum

1 c Wray & Nephew overproof (126 proof) rum

1/2 c allspice berries, crushed

5 black pepper berries, crushed

5 cloves, crushed

2 cinnamon sticks, broken

1 nutmeg, crushed

Down the line, I'll add 1 lb of demerara sugar, another 1/2 lb of brown sugar, 2-3 c water, and Angostura bitters to taste (an ounce or less, I think). Then, in Feb, I'll drive up to Massachusetts and do a comparison.

[gethin]

Does anyone know how the Sangsters Old Jamaica Pimebno Dram compares with the W & N one ? I've just found a few bottles of it tucked away on a shelf in a local Afro Caribbean supermarket.

I understand Sangsters was taken over by W & N (or that both W & N were taken over by another company (lLascelles ??). Not sure when that happened though. Does anyone know how old these Sangsters bottles are likely to be ?

Gethin

PS is W& N Jamaica Brandy really, really vile or have i just got a duff bottle ?

[Chris Amirault]

Strained the stuff into two bottles and I'm now trying to figure out some interesting drinks to make with it. Andy's point about the W&N overproof seems to make sense at this early stage, btw, though it's still hard to tell (and I have no comparison to make).

[Chris Amirault]

Mixed up a tasty, simple rum sour on a tiki theme:

2 oz white rum (Flor de Cana)

1/4 oz overproof demerara rum (Lemon Hart 151)

1/2 oz pimento dram

3/4 oz lime

dash Angostura

It's very good, but the molasses is a bit too prominent still, instead of fading back as a sweet base. It'll be interesting to try later on when the pimento dram has aged a bit.

[Chris Amirault]

Tried a version of a Lion's Tail tonight, omitting simple bc this pimento is still pretty sweet:

2 oz bourbon (Wild Turkey 101)

1/2 oz pimento liqueur

1/2 oz lime

dash bitters (Erik's Hess house)

Very nice. I'd go more scant on the lime next time, but the bourbon/pimento combination is excellent.

[bostonapothecary]

Tried a version of a Lion's Tail tonight, omitting simple bc this pimento is still pretty sweet:

2 oz bourbon (Wild Turkey 101)

1/2 oz pimento liqueur

1/2 oz lime

dash bitters (Erik's Hess house)

Very nice. I'd go more scant on the lime next time, but the bourbon/pimento combination is excellent.

←

has anyone tried kummel with pimento dram?? they seem to be paired together quite a few times in the cocktial database... some people must know something i don't about a cool flavor combo...

[Chris Amirault]

It makes sense in a kind of garam masala sort of way....

[bostonapothecary]

It makes sense in a kind of garam masala sort of way....

←

hmm. i've never really been exposed to caraway and didn't realize it was an anise...

benedictine (which i often compare to pimento dram) often gets paired with the anises... so it doesn't seem like that crazy a flavor combo... but now i wonder why it was chosen over any other anise option... a regional or thematic significance?

[slkinsey]

hmm. i've never really been exposed to caraway and didn't realize it was an anise...

I wouldn't necessarily say that caroway is "an anise" -- which carries the implication that it is a type of anise, which it isn't.

Caroway and aniseed are in the same family (Apiaceae -- hollow stemmed plants including parsley, fennel, carrot, etc.) but not in the same genus. Caraway is in the genus Carum (species: C. carvi) and aniseed is in the genus Pimpinella (species: P. anisum).

Personally, I can't say that I think caraway has a particularly liquorice-like flavor and aroma. I think it's pretty uniquely "caraway-like" in flavor (think of the seeds in traditional caraway rye bread).

Anyway... if you want to expose yourself to caraway, pick up a bottle of akvavit. If you can still find any Aalborg brand in the US (they have apparently stopped importing it), it has a particularly notable caraway flavor.

Edited January 4, 2008 by slkinsey (log)

[Chris Amirault]

More experimentation, this one just ok: a pisco sour variation.

2 oz pisco (Barsol)

1 oz lemon

1/2 oz pimento dram

1/4 oz simple syrup

egg white

dash Angostura

[Chris Amirault]

I've never mixed anything with it -- Pimento Dram in Oregon? unpossible! -- but looking at the DB, I think my first choice for experimentation would be the None But The Brave, which seem to rely on it the most.  Hell of a name -- a cursory glance doesn't show it in any books I have -- but from the ingredients it sounds a grand autumnal drink.

←

It's a grand winter drink as well. I floated a few drops of Angostura, which was a nice addition.

[Alchemist]

hmm. i've never really been exposed to caraway and didn't realize it was an anise...

I wouldn't necessarily say that caroway is "an anise" -- which carries the implication that it is a type of anise, which it isn't.

Caroway and aniseed are in the same family (Apiaceae -- hollow stemmed plants including parsley, fennel, carrot, etc.) but not in the same genus. Caraway is in the genus Carum (species: C. carvi) and aniseed is in the genus Pimpinella (species: P. anisum).

Personally, I can't say that I think caraway has a particularly liquorice-like flavor and aroma. I think it's pretty uniquely "caraway-like" in flavor (think of the seeds in traditional caraway rye bread).

Anyway... if you want to expose yourself to caraway, pick up a bottle of akvavit. If you can still find any Aalborg brand in the US (they have apparently stopped importing it), it has a particularly notable caraway flavor.

←

If you can't find the Aalborg try Gilka Kaiser-Kummel Liqueur, esoteric as it is it is still being imported. It's unique caraway flavor is stronger than the Aalborg. Try a rinse of the Kummel on your next Manhattan, with rye of course. Maybe with ham rolls with spicy mustard to nibble on.

1.5 Rittenhouse rye

1.5 Michters rye

1.0 Carpano Antica

.50 Noilly Prat dry vermouth

1 dash Angostura

3 dash Peychaud's

Rinse glass with Kummel.

S,S,SU. garnish with a cherry.

Hopefully tastes a bit like pumpernickle bread.

Toby

Edited January 22, 2008 by Alchemist (log)