A Frothy Explosion of Flavour
Sweet, sour and bitter. Pisco sour, Peru’s famous national cocktail, is a white, frothy explosion of flavour.
Pisco is a strong spirit distilled purely from grapes. The flavour of the pisco varies depending on the grape variety and whether the different types are blended or not. The three-month ageing process also plays an important role. This can take place in glass, stainless steel or another material that is intended to preserve the flavour rather than change it.
You can drink pisco neat, like any good-quality spirit, but the less refined varieties are perfectly suitable for cocktails. The name of the drink most likely comes from Pisco, an important port city from which ships carrying wine and pisco departed for Europe. The cocktail’s creator was the American Victor V. Morris. Morris owned a bar frequented by many English diplomats, artists and writers, and came up with this drink as a variation on the whisky sour. So it is hardly surprising that the drink also became popular outside Peru.
Would you like to get started with bitters, lime juice and egg whites? Tim Hoevenagel, bar manager at Tunes Bar in the Conservatorium hotel, has the perfect recipe.
Method
Put 50 ml pisco, 20 ml sugar syrup, 30 ml fresh lemon juice and one egg white in the shaker and add ice cubes. Shake vigorously, then pour the drink into a glass. Garnish with a lime wedge and three drops of Angostura bitters or amargo bitters. These bitters help set the foam layer on the cocktail.
Image: Paul Winch-Furness
Recipe: Tim Hoevenagel
