A few months ago a group of attrac­tive young peo­ple walked into my bar look­ing for drinks. Since my bar is an expen­sive, well-appointed sort of place that mostly appeals to older cou­ples and busi­ness­men out with their mis­tresses, this alone would have the made the evening a night to remember.

One of the ladies, Erica, wanted a drink that our pre­vi­ous bar­tender, Neil, had made her some time before. Neil’s a great bar­tender; his Queen Bee is still our best-selling cock­tail, the token vodka drink on my menu of rye and aqua­vit con­coc­tions. He left me most of his recipes, but he didn’t leave me all of them. This appar­ently was one of the ones I missed.

All she knew was that the drink was made with Cognac and all­spice. On another night I might have con­vinced her to try some­thing else, but the drink sounded deli­cious and I was a sucker for her British accent so instead I decided to impro­vise some­thing. That’s how the Erica’s Impulse was born:

• 2 oz brandy
• .5 oz all­spice dram
• .5 oz lemon juice
• .25 oz rich sim­ple syrup (2:1 sugar:water)
• 1 dash Regan’s orange bitters

Shake over ice and dou­ble strain into a chilled cock­tail glass. I like it. More impor­tantly, Erica liked it. She liked it even more when she returned and found it on our menu. Make one for your­self or come into Carlyle dur­ing these fall and win­ter months and you may like it too.

Notes and a bonus cock­tail: Allspice dram can be hard to find but is no longer totally unob­tain­able. It used to be known unap­pe­tiz­ingly as pimento dram, which might be one rea­son that it fell out of use (all­spice berries grow on the pimento tree). It’s once again avail­able in the US branded as St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram, and it’s an incred­i­bly aro­matic and deli­cious liqueur.

The cock­tail above is inspired by an old and tasty drink called the Lion’s Tail, orig­i­nally pub­lished in the Café Royal Cocktail Book and reprinted in the excel­lent Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Here’s the recipe I use:

• 2 oz bourbon
• .5 oz all­spice dram
• .5 oz lime
• .25 oz rich sim­ple syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake over ice and strain. It’s a refresh­ing cock­tail with unusual fla­vors that are sure to catch a drinker’s atten­tion, def­i­nitely worth try­ing if you pick up a bot­tle of all­spice dram.

A BORSCHT-IN 2009

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