Finally, after a month or so of aging the pimento dram, it's now time to taste it.
First: the sensory impressions.
Color: Dark brown, fairly viscous, slightly translucent liquid.
Odor: Strongly smells of allspice, with undertones of alcohol.
Taste: It starts off allspicey and very sweet, with a slightly harsh alcoholic finish. I wasn't expecting such an alcoholic bite to it; it's definitely more than most liqueurs have. I attribute this to the Cruzan 151 that I used; I used about 20 oz of 151 across two 750 ml bottles, so that figures out to roughly 60 proof, I believe, which is right in the middle of the range of the liqueurs I posess (Kahlua, Galliano, Luxardo Maraschino, Luxardo Amaretto, Cointreau, etc...) I'm supposing that the Cruzan is fairly rough stuff for 151- it's hard to tell by tasting it; it's all harsh at that proof!
Our first application for the liqueur was hot chocolate. Karen really wanted to try it in hot chocolate, so we made some hot chocolate using our Rechiutti drinking chocolate and about a 1/2 oz of the pimento dram.
It was good, although a bit weird to my palate. Karen loved it though! Personally, I'd have preferred milk chocolate- I didn't think the bitterness worked with the very obvious allspice flavor. Still, the liqueur wasn't harsh or in any way a detraction from the drink at all.
Our next test was a real mixed drink. After a little looking online and perusing of the bar shelves, we decided on a drink called the "None but the Brave".
The drink goes as follows (from link to CocktailDB above):
We really only diverged slightly on the rum and the glasses, and the rum's because my bottle of Jamaican rum is MIA after last weekend's dove hunting / poker / boy's weekend. Instead of Coruba Jamaican rum, we ended up using Mt. Gay Sugar Cane Brandy (bottle says "rum" for legal reasons).
The finished drinks were distinctly amber colored, but smelled divine.
We diverged on the glasses because these Bodum double-walled tumblers are simply excellent for hot/cold beverages- they keep it colder longer than a regular glass will.
Results:
This drink kicks ass! It's tart, sweet, and tastes kind of lemony and like allspice, with something that strangely reminds me of apples or some other fruit. The pimento dram is very obvious, but again, not overpowering or harsh. I think we've found a winner here.
Overall verdict: A
This project resulted in a product that is versatile, safe and drinkable, which is more than I can say for some of my culinary adventures! I suspect we'll be seeing more of the pimento dram in the future, especially in egg-nog and in some drinks we have yet to invent!
That drink looks a lot like a cider. I'd be interested to try it some time.
Posted by: Munchkin Mom | Monday, September 14, 2009 at 11:27 PM