Tag Archives: Allspice Dram

Cocktails For A Crowd

When entertaining at home there’s perhaps no more stressful time than those first few minutes when guests have arrived, but you’ve yet to light the candles, put the roast in the oven, or get dressed. 

To lessen that crunch-time agita, consider setting out a simple but impressive drinks spread that your guests can easily help themselves to while you finish your prep. And with just a little bit of advance planning, you can offer bar-quality cocktails without having to play bartender when there’s so much else to do. 

What we like best about this first recipe, created by Kayleigh Speck, bar manager at The East End, is that you can make it three days in advance. This means you can have your Thanksgiving cocktails done and off your mind on the Tuesday before. 

One batch of this seasonally-spot-on and absolutely delicious recipe makes enough for a welcome cocktail for 8-10 people. It’s a snap to make, and can be easily stored and served in 33oz glass swing-top bottles. We sell this version at Bottles for just $5.99 (plus tax).

So whip up and bottle a batch or two on Tuesday and forget about it until Thursday, just before your guests arrive. All you’ll have to do then is set the bottles out on ice, alongside cocktail glasses and a bowl of orange peels for garnish, then get back to the business of the million last minute bits that will need your attention.
The Apple of My Eye, For A Crowd
8 oz bourbon
8 oz apple brandy
6 oz sweet vermouth
4 oz cointreau
3 oz water (for dilution)
8 – 10 dashes Angostura Bitters
Garnish: orange peel

Makes approximately 32 oz, enough for 8-10 guests

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. This batch can be pre-bottled up to 3 days in advance, sealed in latch top bottles, and refrigerated. Serve chilled, poured into cocktail glasses and garnished with an orange peel.

Equally as impressive – and just as easy – is the tried, true, traditional and totally cool punchbowl presentation. All that the recipe below, also created by Kayleigh, requires is that you 
pour all of the ingredients together in a punchbowl over a big block of ice just before you guests arrive. (And if you forget to prepare your large-format ice the night before, don’t fret: the punch is just as good over individual ice cubes in the punch mugs.)
FINE-Apple Punch, For A Crowd
Makes approximately 32 oz, enough for 8-10 guests
6 oz gin
2 oz cointreau
½ oz Allspice Dram***
6 oz lemon juice
8 oz pineapple juice
10 oz sparkling apple cider (non-alcohol)
Large format ice (formed in a bundt pan, or large cubes)
Garnish: cinnamon stick

 
Combine all ingredients in a large punch bowl over large ice cubes or an ice-mold. To serve, ladle into punch glasses and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

***A note on Allspice Dram: this bitter and super sweet rum based liqueur is spiced (with allspice, natch), and is a key component in many of the tiki drinks that Kayleigh and her team make at The East End. It’s also terrific in an Old Fashioned, and several tequila-based cocktails. Given its unique flavor and versatility, It should be on any serious home bar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

# # #

(prices subject to change)

Bottles’ Hot Spiked Cider

Cider Drinking. It’s a rite of passage for us New Englanders. It pairs well with football watching, apple picking, pumpkin carving and post leaf-raking relaxing. Bottles’ go-to version is a grown-up affair, made strong with a slightly-boozy cider and a few drops of allspice dram*. Fill a thermos of the warm concoction before heading to the game, or let it simmer in a crockpot when your house is full of friends.

We’ll be making a great big batch of it in-store on Saturday, October 15th for you to enjoy, alongside crazy good cider donuts from Greenville RI’s Appleland Orchard. We hope you can make it in, between 1-3pm, for a Bottles’ taste of fall!

*Allspice dram is a slightly bitter, strongly spiced rum-based liqueur. It’s infused with the allspice berry, which lends the spirit warm, winter-spice nutmeg-y/cinnamon-y flavors. St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram is a Bottles’ best seller.

cider_blog_1013

Bottles’ Hot Spiked Cider
Yields ~ 4 cups

1 btl (22 oz.) Doc’s Original Apple Cider
1/4 cup (2 oz.) St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram
1 cup (8 oz.) apple cider (non-alcoholic)
1/2 cup (4 oz.) water
1 diced apple
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
Have fun with these ingredients, and adjust to taste. You could add maple syrup or brown sugar for sweetness, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom for pumped-up spice, or more dram for a more bitter-herbal flavor.

Stovetop method:
Simmer the chopped apple in allspice dram until the dram begins to reduce and thicken. Add Doc’s (or another hard cider of your choice), non-alcoholic cider, cinnamon stick, and water. Turn heat to high, stirring often, until liquid is just about to boil. Set to a simmer and cook uncovered for at least 15 minutes. The longer it simmers, the richer the flavor!

Crockpot method:
All of the ingredients can go in at once with your crockpot set to low for 3 hours or high for 1.5 hours.

###