Cocktails with Pimento bitters
Pimento bitters are a spice-forward cocktail bittering agent flavored predominantly with allspice berry.
ABV40%Though the alcohol is negligible in practice because the bitters are used only in dashes.
Substitutes for Pimento bitters
Allspice in a dash-strength form, and the alternatives are sweetened and much weaker, so they are poured by the milliliter and bring sugar with them. Cracked berries steeped in overproof rum make a passable tincture for nothing.
Often confused with
Pimento dram
A sweetened allspice liqueur at 20–30%, poured in milliliters. It flavors and sweetens where bitters only season: two dashes become roughly a barspoon, and the sugar in the build comes down to match.
Pimiento pepper
A sweet red pepper, unrelated to the allspice berry despite the shared name, and nothing in a drinks recipe ever means this.
Storage
Allspice sits on eugenol, the same compound that makes clove smell of clove, and eugenol is stable and slow to fade. Closed and out of the sun this bottle will still be sharp years from now.
