A bourbon sour with a Caribbean accent: lime and a mere teaspoon of sugar sharpen the whiskey, while allspice dram laces it with clove, nutmeg and warm pimento spice. A dash of Angostura pulls the heat and the tartness together, leaving a dry, bracing coupe with a long spiced finish.
Garnish: Cherry
Shaken · Coupe · Up
add
Combine bourbon, allspice dram, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, and the dash of Angostura bitters in a shaker.
shake
Add ice and shake hard until well chilled, 10-12 seconds.
strain
Fine-strain into a chilled coupe, served up with no ice.
garnish
Optional cherry; some serves use a lime or orange twist.
The drink's earliest printed appearance is in William J. Tarling's Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937, where the entry names L. A. Clarke as its inventor. Its title borrows an old expression — to twist the lion's tail was to goad the British. When allspice dram all but vanished from bar shelves in the middle of the century, the recipe slipped from view with it, and it came back only once the liqueur was revived in the 2000s.