Homemade Pimento Liqueur [Beachbum Berry Remixed]

There’s a growing subset of drink-fanciers called “distologists”, who craft their own liquors and liqueurs at home. Among Tikiphiles, Matthew “Kuku Ahu” Thatcher is the go-to distologist. We went to him when we could no longer find pimento liqueur on U.S. shelves, and he hipped us to this surprisingly simple recipe, which he created in 2005. “I just like to tinker with booze and study it a little,” says Kuku, who hangs his hat in Columbus, Ohio. “That’s really where it begins and ends with me. I do it for myself and for the drinkers.” ======== 1/4 cup dried whole allspice berries 750 ml light Virgin Islands rum 2 cups brown sugar 1 cup water Step one: Grind the allspice berries until they have the consistency of ground coffee. Place your ground allspice in a saucepan with 1 cup of light rum and bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and stir. This will make a “tea”. Funnel this hot “tea”, ground berries and all, into an empty rum bottle. Now fill the bottle 3/4 of the way to the top with more of the same light rum. Seal it and let sit for at least 2 weeks, shaking it daily. Step two: When the 2 weeks are up, filter through a double-layer of cheesecloth. Discard solids, then filter again through a metal mesh coffee filter, and a third time through unbleached paper filters. (If the resulting reddish brown liquid is still cloudy, filter once more through the paper.) Now make a sugar syrup by heating 1 cup water and 1 pound brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Mix equal parts of this sugar syrup with your pimento-infused rum. Step three: Bottle it, seal it, and let it sit unmolested for at least a month. (The longer you wait, the more flavorful it gets.) ========