Pisco punch

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Pisco punch was an alcoholic beverage invented by Duncan Nicol at a bar named Bank Exchange at the end of the 1800s, in San Francisco, California. The Bank Exchange was located in south-east corner of the intersection of the Montgomery and Washington streets, in the Montgomery Block building, where the Transamerica Pyramid now stands.

Pisco is a late 16th century Peruvian brandy made from grapes. It was available in San Francisco since the 1830s when it was first brought from Pisco, Peru by Rawhide and Tallow traders trading with California towns. During the California Gold Rush of 1849 the brandy was readily available in San Francisco.

When the Bank Exchange & Billiard Saloon opened its doors in 1853 it served pisco among other several liquors. Several punches were made using pisco at the Bank Exchange over a long succession of owners, ending in 1893 with Duncan Nicol. Nicol was the last owner of the Bank Exchange when it closed its doors permanently in 1919 because of the Volstead Act.

Duncan Nicol invented a pisco punch recipe using: pisco brandy from Pisco, Peru, pineapple, Lime (fruit) juice, sugar, gum arabic and distilled water. The punch was so potent that one writer of the day wrote "it tastes like lemonade but comes back with the kick of a roped steer." Others said "it makes a gnat fight an elephant." Harold Ross, founder of the "New Yorker" magazine wrote in 1937: "In the old days in San Francisco there was a famous drink called Pisco Punch, made from Pisco, a Peruvian brandy... [pisco punch] used to taste like lemonade but had a kick like vodka, or worse."

[edit] Sources

  • Pauline Jacobson - A Fire-Defying Landmark, The Bulletin, San Francisco, May 4, 1912, Pg. 13
  • William Heath Davis - Seventy-five Years in San Francisco, D.S. Watson, 1929
  • Herbert Asbury - The Barbary Coast : An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld, 1933, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002
  • Robert O'Brien - This is San Francisco, Whittlesey House N.Y. 1948 Chronicle Books, 1994
  • Idwal Jones - Ark of Empire, Ballantine Books, 1951
  • William Bronson - Secrets of Pisco Punch Revealed, California Historical Society, 1973
  • Edited by Thomas Kunkel, Letters from the Editor - The New Yorker's Harold Ross, * The Modern Library, New York, 2001, Pg. 117
  • Toro-Lira, Guillermo - Alas de los Querubines - (Spanish), Libros GTL, 2006
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