my homemade allspice syrup/pimento dram tasting experiments - Tiki Drinks and Food

T TikiTacky Member Joined: Nov 23, 2010 Posts: 1319	T TikiTacky Posted posted on Sun, Apr 6, 2014 3:59 PM I've been wanting to make the Voodoo Grog ever since Mr. Bum told me it was one of his three favorite recipes in his new book Potions of the Carribean. Unfortunately, it calls for Pimento Dram, which is one ingredient I haven't acquired yet. A few of my local liquor stores actually carry the St. Elizabeth's, but it's around $30 a bottle and, as any good tiki experimenter will tell you, all those odd ingredients and top-shelf liquor that are "crucial" to the creation of a drink add up up fast. Seeing that so many people were having good luck making their own pimento dram, I thought I'd give it a shot. Aside from the steeping time it looked simple enough. I made a trip to my local Target to pick the ingredients before I NOPED right out of this experiment. The most popular recipe seems to be the Taggart's. Here's what it calls for: 2 1/4 cups Lemon Hart 151 1/2 cup whole Allspice berries 1 1/2 lbs brown sugar 3 cups water 2 1/4 cups is 532 milliliters. That's almost 3/4 of a bottle of Lemon Hart that would cost me $27. That's $19 worth of rum. Allspice at my local Target costs $4.20 for .75 ounces. There's no direct conversion for dry ounces to cups, but it's approximately 8 oz per cup, so I need 4 oz.; that's $22 worth of Allspice. Figure around $3 for the sugar. Water is pretty much free. I've now spent $44 to make my pimento dram, and it won't be ready for over a month. In other words: don't bother making your own pimento dram unless you live in a place where you literally can't buy it anywhere. Immortalize your name for eternity by contributing to The Tikipedia! T-shirts based on vintage tiki matchbooks: TikiTees [ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-04-06 16:03 ]

I've been wanting to make the Voodoo Grog ever since Mr. Bum told me it was one of his three favorite recipes in his new book Potions of the Carribean. Unfortunately, it calls for Pimento Dram, which is one ingredient I haven't acquired yet. A few of my local liquor stores actually carry the St. Elizabeth's, but it's around $30 a bottle and, as any good tiki experimenter will tell you, all those odd ingredients and top-shelf liquor that are "crucial" to the creation of a drink add up up fast.

Seeing that so many people were having good luck making their own pimento dram, I thought I'd give it a shot. Aside from the steeping time it looked simple enough. I made a trip to my local Target to pick the ingredients before I NOPED right out of this experiment.

The most popular recipe seems to be the Taggart's. Here's what it calls for:

2 1/4 cups Lemon Hart 151
1/2 cup whole Allspice berries
1 1/2 lbs brown sugar
3 cups water

2 1/4 cups is 532 milliliters. That's almost 3/4 of a bottle of Lemon Hart that would cost me $27. That's $19 worth of rum. Allspice at my local Target costs $4.20 for .75 ounces. There's no direct conversion for dry ounces to cups, but it's approximately 8 oz per cup, so I need 4 oz.; that's $22 worth of Allspice. Figure around $3 for the sugar. Water is pretty much free. I've now spent $44 to make my pimento dram, and it won't be ready for over a month.

In other words: don't bother making your own pimento dram unless you live in a place where you literally can't buy it anywhere.

Immortalize your name for eternity by contributing to The Tikipedia!

T-shirts based on vintage tiki matchbooks: TikiTees

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-04-06 16:03 ]

Post #713190 by TikiTacky on Sun, Apr 6, 2014 3:59 PM

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