Pisco Sour

the national drink of Peru: pisco shaken with the juice of the small bitter limón sutil, sugar syrup, and egg white until it wears a thick white collar, finished with three drops of Angostura

Origin: Peru

From the journey of Lime.

Pisco is the unaged grape brandy of the Peruvian coastal valleys, distilled from wine made in the irrigated desert oases of Ica, Pisco, and Moquegua since the late sixteenth century, and unlike most brandies it is never rested in wood, so that it goes into the glass carrying the raw floral character of the grape. The sour that bears its name was assembled in Lima in the nineteen-twenties, generally credited to Victor Morris at his English-speaking bar on Jirón de la Unión, and it applies the old Anglo-American sour formula of spirit, citrus, and sugar to a South American spirit and a South American citrus. The lime is the limón sutil or limón peruano, a small, thin-skinned, seedy key lime grown chiefly in the northern valleys around Piura, and it is markedly more bitter and more perfumed than the large green Persian lime; Peruvians hold, with reason, that it is the whole difference between a pisco sour and a lime-flavoured brandy. The egg white is not decoration. Shaken hard it emulsifies with the acid and the alcohol into a dense white foam that sits an inch deep on the surface, softens the sharpness of the pisco, and holds the three drops of Angostura that are dashed onto it at the last moment.

Ingredients

Sour

  • 60 ml pisco (Quebranta or an acholado blend)
  • 25 ml fresh lime juice, from small key limes if possible
  • 20 ml sugar syrup (equal parts caster sugar and hot water, cooled)
  • 1 whole egg white (about 30 ml)
  • 1 handful ice cubes

To Serve

  • 3 drop Angostura bitters, to finish

Method

  1. Chill a small tumbler or an old-fashioned glass in the freezer. Squeeze the limes to order and strain the juice.
  2. Combine the pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup, and egg white in a shaker with no ice, and shake hard for 15 seconds. This is the dry shake.
  3. Open the shaker, fill it two-thirds with ice, seal, and shake hard again for a further 15 seconds, until the outside is frosted and painfully cold.
  4. Strain into the chilled glass, pouring steadily so that the foam settles into an even layer roughly a centimetre deep on the surface. Let it stand for 20 seconds to firm.
  5. Dash three drops of Angostura bitters onto the foam, spaced apart, and serve at once. Some bartenders drag a cocktail stick through them into a pattern; most Peruvians do not.

Notes

Peruvian pisco is made from eight permitted grape varieties and in three styles: puro from a single grape, of which Quebranta is the classic base for a sour, acholado from a blend, and mosto verde from partially fermented must, which is finer and better drunk on its own. Chilean pisco is a different product made under different rules and the two countries dispute the name with some passion; a sour made with either is good, but the Peruvian version is the one described here. Where small key limes are unavailable, use Persian limes with a squeeze of grapefruit juice to restore some of the bitterness. Those who avoid raw egg can use 20 ml of chickpea aquafaba, which foams surprisingly well, though the texture is lighter. The drink has a national holiday of its own, on the first Saturday of February.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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