A Rum and Allspice Swapped Vieux Carré Riff

Simple substitutions make for an entirely new drink.

In last week’s newsletter, we looked at the Bellshire Old Fashioned, which transforms the Vieux Carré into an Old Fashioned, primarily by swapping out the vermouth for honey syrup.

But there are other ways to riff on the Vieux Carré that keep the underlying structure in place by relying on more straightforward ingredient swaps. In this newsletter, we’ll look at one I created myself. 

As a reminder, my favorite Vieux Carré looks like this:

• 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

• 2 dashes Angostura aromatic bitters

• ¼ ounce Bénédictine

• 1 ounce sweet vermouth (Cocchi di Torino)

• 1 ounce cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840)

• 1 ounce rye (Rittenhouse)

INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass.

2. Add ice, then stir until chilled.

3. Strain into a rocks glass over a single large piece of ice.

4. Garnish with an orange peel. 

Starting from this recipe, I made three relatively easy substitutions and ended up with something that’s both quite different than the original drink and still quite clearly a relative of the Vieux Carré.

The first was to swap the cognac for a rich, easy-drinking Jamaican rum — in this case, Appleton Estate Signature, a staple of my five-bottle tiki bar. Rye and rum, of course, play quite nicely together, and make for an easygoing yet still complex spirit base. 

Having swapped in rum, I wanted to change the flavoring agents, in particular the Bénédictine, since I find its particular herbal qualities a somewhat difficult match with rum. So I swapped out the Bénédictine for St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram, a spiced liqueur common in tiki drinks that is always a great complement to both rum and rye. 

Allspice Dram is not a direct substitute for Bénédictine; they have quite different flavor profiles. But although they don’t taste the same, they are both somewhat sweet spiced liquors with a darker cast, so they can often play the same role. 

When making swaps and substitutions, I sometimes like to think about bottles of alcohol like actors. Any time you create a drink, you end up working a little like a casting director. There are certain bottles that can play certain parts, with some more versatile than others. But just because two different actors could theoretically play the same role doesn’t mean they’d deliver the exact same movie; it just means the movie would probably work either way. You could swap Chris Pine and Chris Evans in a lot of parts, or even Chris Pine and Ryan Gosling, without wrecking your movie. But different choices would lead to different films, with different tones and different vibes. Allspice Dram and Bénédictine don’t typically take leading roles, but they are swappable in roughly the same way. 

Whichever choice you made, however, you’d need to consider the rest of the cast in the context of which Chris or Ryan you chose. Which is why, after moving the rum and Allspice into the mix, I made one final change by swapping the spicy Peychaud’s for mellower, orange bitters, which, like the Big Lewbowski’s rug, really bring all the other elements together. The result is a stirred and boozy cocktail that has an almost (but not quite) tiki-ish bent to it, yet still scratches the same winter-sipper itch as the Vieux Carré. 

Since I like cocktail riff names that nod to their originals, I call this one…

John Le Carré

• 2 dashes orange bitters (Regan’s)

• 2 dashes Angostura aromatic bitters

• ¼ ounce St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

• 1 ounce sweet vermouth (Cocchi di Torino)

• 1 ounce rum (Appleton Signature Blend)

• 1 ounce rye (Rittenhouse)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in mixing glass.

2. Add ice, then stir until chilled.

3. Strain into a rocks glass over a large piece of ice.

4. Garnish with an orange peel.

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