Recipe: Base Camp (serves one)
- 1 1/2 oz. bourbon
- 1/2 oz. Laphroaig Scotch
- 1/4 oz. St. Elizabeth allspice dram
- 1/4 oz. creme de cacao
- 2 dashes (= 1/4 tsp.) orange bitters
Combine ingredients in mixing glass with ice. Stir, then strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass.
On our visit to Bibo Ergo Sum in Los Angeles, we not only had the Nite Lite from our last post, but also this delicious cocktail. The bartender said he learned how to make it while working at Attaboy in New York City; he wrote the recipe on a napkin for us.
The two key ingredients are the allspice dram and the Laphroaig Scotch. Despite the name, allspice isn’t a blend of spices: it’s a single berry that tastes like cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. St. Elizabeth allspice dram is made by infusing allspice into a base of Jamaican rum. It’s intensely flavorful, and it dominated the drink when we made a version with a milder Scotch. But Laphroaig amps up the complexity with its own intense flavors of smoke and peat. The combination makes you feel like you’re celebrating winter holidays around a smoky campfire.
