Lion’s Tail
Ingredients:
2oz Bourbon
.5oz Lime Juice
.5oz Allspice Dram
Barspoon Simple Syrup
Dash Angosutra Bitters
Instructions:
Add Bourbon, Lime Juice, Allspice Dram, Simple Syrup and Bitters to a shaker/pint glass. Add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Notes:
Light and refreshing with heavier undertones, the Lion’s Tail is a unique cocktail that utilizes the unlikely combination of lime and whiskey with allspice dram. In most cases whiskey doesn’t pair well with lime juice, but somehow the combination with the allspice dram makes it all work, giving Lion’s Tail a familiar whiskey “sour-esque” taste accented by hints of tropics and a touch of winter. The nose is all citrus and sugar, but the bourbon and allspice dram bring a deeper complexity to the taste, which lightens up a bit toward the end with a citrus and allspice finish. Lion’s Tail does better with a heavier bourbon, such as 100 proof Knob Creek.
Advice: Drink this one good and cold as when it warms up the magic is certainly lost.
History:
The original recipe called for Gomme Syrup, but many use simple syrup in this one.
Lion’s Tail was first published in the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book by W. J. Tarling in 1937. Tarling credits the cocktail to someone named L.A. Clarke. Beyond this I have been unable to find much else about this cocktail.
Some suggest that this cocktail originated earlier than 1937, due to the relative scarcity of bourbon when this book was published. Prohibition had barely ended and it took some time before bourbon was again readily available, particularly overseas. An interesting and plausible theory for sure.
The Straight Up 
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