The Pisco Sour is a “sour,” a family of cocktails consisting of a base of distilled spirit, lemon (or lime) juice, and a sweetener.
An All-day cocktail based on pisco, a brandy produced in Peru and Chile, made by distilling white and rosé wine. The invention of the Pisco Sour is credited to Victor Morris, an American immigrant from Salt Lake City who moved to Peru in 1913.
In Lima, he opened “Morris’ Bar” located at 847 Calle Boza del Jirón de la Unión (between Plaza Mayor and Plaza San Martín), a place that quickly became a meeting point for the Peruvian upper class and English-speaking immigrants.
Morris began serving Pisco Sour (probably adapting a pre-existing recipe) in his bar as an alternative to the Whiskey Sour, and the cocktail continued to maintain popularity even after Morris’s death in 1929.
In Peru, Pisco Sour is made by mixing Pisco with egg white, lemon or lime juice, simple syrup, and Amargo Chuncho Bitter, a Peruvian bitter with a complex combination of over 30 different peels, herbs, roots, barks, and flowers from the Peruvian forest, including Quina and Sarrapia leaves, which are macerated and aged for six months in oak barrels before the product is bottled.
There is a real dispute over the origin of Pisco between Peru and Chile, which seems to have been resolved in favor of Peru.
Pisco Sour is the national drink of Peru, where a national holiday is celebrated on the first Saturday of February.
Pisco is also used in the preparation of another cocktail: the chalaquito, with lemon juice, simple syrup, and soda.
It’s also mixed with Coca Cola under the name piscola, popular in Chile especially among young people.
It was featured in the live broadcast of ViaggiandoMangiando on air on June 8, 2023, video HERE.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Expensive
- Preparation time: 2 Minutes
- Portions: 1 person
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Peruvian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 2 oz Pisco
- 1 oz lime juice (or lemon)
- 0.5 oz gum syrup (or simple syrup)
- 1 egg white
- 2 drops Amargo Chuncho Bitter (or Angostura)
Tools
- 1 Boston Shaker shaker
- 1 Glass champagne coupe or old fashioned
Steps
In a shaker, put the egg white, pisco, sugar, lime or lemon juice, and 4 ice cubes per person.
Shake vigorously for at least a minute to slightly foam the egg white. Pour into a champagne coupe or old fashioned and drop 4 drops of Peruvian bitter (or Angostura) on top of the foam.
In Peru, they often serve it in clay glasses.
Pisco:
The Pisco is a national drink in Peru.
Although it is a distilled wine, it does not belong to the brandy family because it is not aged.
It is distilled only with the copper pot still, the non-continuous copper alembic, which distills slowly, for days, not industrially, continuously or discontinuously from muscat wine, also called Italia, and other grapes grown both in the Ica region and in other arid coastal valleys of southern Peru. The alcohol content ranges from 40 to 50%.
It is distinguished into 4 categories:
– Puro (produced from a single grape variety, hence mono-varietal, which must not be aromatic)
– Aromático (with wine produced from aromatic grape varieties such as albilla, moscatel, torontel, or Italia grapes.)
– Acholado (a distillate produced with wine made from a mix of aromatic and non-aromatic grape varieties)
– Mosto Verde (particular and dense, from a wine in which fermentation was interrupted and therefore still contains sugar)
It is also used for Pisco punch – a cocktail made with pisco, simple syrup, pineapple juice, and lime juice and the Chilcano de pisco with Angostura and ginger ale, Capitan served with vermouth.
