Peruvians feel about pisco as Mexicans do about tequila – it’s a birthright, a national source of pride, and the perfect liquor of choice for ALL and ANY occasion (including breakfast). Last week, I spent a six days learning about pisco, a white spirit made from 100% grapes, and visiting Pisco Porton distillery with other journalists and bartenders.
The Pisco Sour was invented in the 1920s by Victor Morris, oddly enough, an ex-Mormon, working as a bartender in Peru. It’s rumored that whiskey was in short supply, so the popular Whiskey Sour cocktail was not available and Morris swapped out whiskey for pisco and created the national cocktail.
What’s In Pisco Sours?
A traditional recipe goes something like this:
3 Parts Pisco
1 part lime juice
1 part Gum Syrup (Gum Arabic made from trees)
1-2 part Egg White
2-3 drops of Bitters to garnish cocktail
Mix pisco, lime and syrup. Add egg white to shaker. Shake vigorously. Pour in glass. Garnish with a few drops of bitter on top of the white foam.
Rainbow of Pisco Sours
Before visiting the birthplace of both the pisco spirit and the Pisco Sour, I’d sampled and made plenty of Pisco Sours, but not like the ones I found in Peru. Many of the famous bars in Lima, like Mayta, Cala, Huaringas or Capitan Melendez, have over 40 different flavors of pisco sour cocktails. Pisco infusions are big deal there, utilizing strange and wonderful fruits and roots.
Pisco infusions at Cala in Lima, Peru
Here’s my tribute to the rainbow of Pisco Sours you can find in Peru:
The Coca Pisco Sour in which I renamed affectionately the Cocaine Sour as it’s made with the same coca leaves as cocaine is. The drink does NOT have the same side effects as the drug.
I thought any drink made of corn, be it yellow or purple, as is the case with the Chicha Sour, would be sickly sweet. Not so. Purple corn has a tart, bitter flavor and gives the drink a gorgeous magenta color. It was one of my favorite pisco sour varietals.
Not only is the Aguaymento (Goldenberry) Sour delicious but super nutricious too! One berry has the same amount of Vitamin C as 50 oranges. Salud!
The name was so strange, I had to try it out. The Chuchuwasi Sour is made from an Amazonian root infused in pisco called Chuchuwasi. The root gives it the deep red color. When I ordered it from the menu of over 40 pisco sours at Cala Restaurant in Lima, the bartender questioned my judgement. “Very strong. You sure?” With that, I said in my 3-year-old style Spanish, “Yo me gusto muy fuerte!”
I tried the Cama Camu Sour (on the left) at one of Lima’s most popular pisco sour spots: HUARINGAS BAR. Camu camu comes from a small bushy riverside tree from the Amazon rainforest vegetation in Peru and Brazil and the fruit looks like a red/purple cherry. But it tastes a bit like passion fruit. And yes, the yellow pisco sour on the left is an official Passion Fruit Sour.
Pisco sours come in two sizes in Peru: regular or Cathedral. The pisco sours in the photo are the cathedral version. The bartender used so much Pisco (the bartender used 2/3 of a full bottle of Encanto de Campo pisco to make 2 drinks!!!), we renamed it the Vatican Sour.
This is a regular pisco sour size. But I included it in my tribute as it is one of the BEST places to get an authentic pisco sour in Lima: Bar Capitán Meléndez. Bar Capitan serves only pisco spirits . No vodka, no gin, no whiskey here. Just pisco, over 50 kinds to choose from.
More Pisco Pow-Wow
With Love from Pisco Porton Distillery (PHOTOS)
How to Celebrate National Pisco Day