The Lions Tail

You guessed it this is another cocktail classic! This drink “The Lions Tail” is made with all the classic ingredients.  The one of the many great ingredients that I’m really going to highlight here is what’s called “Allspice Dram”. And yes, Allspice Dram is made with allspice berries. From what I can gather the allspice berry, as we know it today, was discovered by eighteenth century seafaring explorers and was originally called pimento until later crowned allspice. Allspice has some hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove all wrapped into one amazing little berry. Allspice is used in many Caribbean dishes and low and behold they decided to make an amazing little drink, Allspice Dram, what they did was soak the berries in Jamaican Rum added some other herbs and spices and they had themselves something quite spectacular. Allspice Dram came into favor for some time in the 1930’s and then for whatever reason fell to the wayside and it wasn’t until recently that it emerged again. Now it can found in the form of “St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram”. The Lions Tail is a vintage cocktail that uses Allspice Dram, but it’s very important that we continue to push the limits and see how far we can take. So without further a due here is the amazing drink itself.

2 oz Bourbon (Now I’ve used both Buillet and Knob Creek and both work well)

¾ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram (Find it at astorwines.com)

½ oz fresh lime juice

½ tablespoon simple syrup

2 dashes angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients in iced cocktail shaker and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish by floating 8-10 whole allspice berries on top of the drink and most of all enjoy.