Pisco Sour

Pisco Sour

Peruvian Pisco Sour
Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Pisco
Served	Straight up; without ice
Standard garnish	Angostura bitters (1 dash)[a]
Standard drinkware	Old Fashioned glass
Commonly used ingredients	2 fl oz (8 parts) Pisco 1 fl oz (4 parts) Key lime or lemon juice 3/4 fl oz (3 part) Simple syrup 1 Egg white[a]
Preparation	Shake hard or blend with ice and strain into glass. The bitters are an aromatic garnish topping the finished drink, put on top of Pisco Sour foam.
Recipe adapted from The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan. ^ Standard in Peruvian version, absent in Chilean version.

A Pisco Sour is a cocktail typical of South American cuisine.^{[upper-alpha 2]} The drink's name comes from pisco, which is its base liquor, and the cocktail term sour, in reference to sour citrus juice and sweetener components. The Peruvian Pisco Sour uses Peruvian pisco as the base liquor and adds Key lime (or lemon) juice, syrup, ice, egg white, and Angostura bitters. The Chilean version is similar, but uses Chilean pisco and Pica lime, and excludes the bitters and egg white. Other variants of the cocktail include those created with fruits like pineapple or plants such as coca leaves.

The cocktail originated in Lima, Peru, and was invented by Victor Vaughen Morris, an American bartender, in the early 1920s. Morris left the United States in 1903 to work in Cerro de Pasco, a city in central Peru. In 1916, he opened Morris' Bar in Lima, and his saloon quickly became a popular spot for the Peruvian upper class and English-speaking foreigners. The Pisco Sour underwent several changes until Mario Bruiget, a Peruvian bartender working at Morris' Bar, created the modern Peruvian recipe of the cocktail in the latter part of the 1920s by adding Angostura bitters and egg whites to the mix.

In Chile, historian Oreste Plath attributed the invention of the drink to Elliot Stubb, an English steward of a ship named Sunshine, who allegedly mixed Key lime juice, syrup, and ice cubes to create the cocktail in a bar, in 1872, in the port city of Iquique, which at that time was part of Peru. The original source cited by Plath attributed the invention of the whiskey sour to Stubb, not the Pisco Sour. The oldest known mentions of the Pisco Sour are from a 1921 magazine attributing Morris as the inventor and a 1924 advertisement for Morris' Bar published in a newspaper from the port of Valparaíso, Chile.

Chile and Peru both claim the Pisco Sour as their national drink, and each asserts exclusive ownership of both pisco and the cocktail. Peru celebrates a yearly public holiday in honor of the cocktail during the first Saturday of February. The two kinds of pisco and the two variations in the style of preparing the Pisco Sour are distinct in both production and taste. Thus, the Pisco Sour has become a significant and oft-debated topic of Latin American popular culture.

Name

The term sour refers to mixed drinks containing a base liquor (bourbon or some other whiskey), lemon or lime juice, and a sweetener.^[6] Pisco refers to the base liquor used in the cocktail. The word as applied to the alcoholic beverage comes from the Peruvian port of Pisco. In the book Latin America and the Caribbean, historian Olwyn Blouet and political geographer Brian Blouet describe the development of vineyards in early Colonial Peru and how in the second half of the sixteenth century a market for the liquor formed owing to the demand from growing mining settlements in the Andes. Subsequent demand for a stronger drink caused Pisco and the nearby city of Ica to establish distilleries "to make wine into brandy",^[7] and the product received the name of the port from where it was distilled and exported.^[8][9]

History

Background

The Plaza de toros de Acho (Lima), the oldest bullring in the Americas, where the drink ancestral to the Pisco Sour was sold

The first grapevines were brought to Peru shortly after its conquest by Spain in the 16th century. Spanish chroniclers from the time note the first winemaking in South America took place in the hacienda Marcahuasi of Cuzco.^[10] The largest and most prominent vineyards of the 16th and 17th century Americas were established in the Ica valley of south-central Peru.^[11][12] In the 1540s, Bartolomé de Terrazas and Francisco de Carabantes planted vineyards in Peru.^[13] Carabantes also established vineyards in Ica, from where Spaniards from Andalucia and Extremadura introduced grapevines into Chile.^[14][13]

By the 16th century, Spanish settlers in Chile and Peru began producing aguardiente,^[14][15] which is distilled from fermented grapes.^[16] Since at least 1764, Peruvian aguardiente was called "Pisco" after its port of shipping;^[11][12] the usage of the name "Pisco" for aguardiente then spread to Chile. The right to produce and market Pisco, still made in Peru and Chile, is the subject of ongoing disputes between the two countries.^[17]

According to historian Luciano Revoredo, the preparation of pisco with lemon dates as far back as the 18th century. He bases his claim on a source found in the Mercurio Peruano which details the prohibition of aguardiente in Lima's Plaza de toros de Acho, the oldest bullring in the Americas. At this time, the drink was named Punche (Punch), and was sold by slaves. Revoredo further argues this drink served as the predecessor of the Californian Pisco punch, invented by Duncan Nicol in the Bank Exchange Bar of San Francisco, California.^[18]

Origin

One of the oldest Pisco Sour advertisements for Morris' Bar^{[upper-alpha 1]}

The Pisco Sour originated in Lima, Peru.^[19][20][21] It was created in the early 1920s by bartender Victor Vaughn Morris, an American who had lived in Peru for several decades. His saloon, Morris' Bar, was popular with both the Peruvian upper class and English-speaking foreigners.^[22][23] Chilean historian Gonzalo Vial Correa also attributes the Pisco Sour's invention to Gringo Morris from the Peruvian Morris Bar, but with the minor difference of naming him William Morris.^[24] Morris often experimented with new drinks, and developed the Pisco Sour as a variety of the Whiskey Sour.^[20]

Some discrepancy exists on the exact date when Morris created the popular cocktail. Mixologist Dale DeGroff asserts the drink was invented in 1915,^[25] but most other sources argue this happened in the 1920s.^[20][21] The Chilean web newspaper El Mercurio Online specifically contends historians attribute the year of the drink's invention as 1922, adding that "one night Morris surprised his friends with a new drink he called Pisco Sour, a formula which mixes the Peruvian Pisco with the American sour" (in Spanish: "Una noche Morris sorprendió a sus amigos con una nueva bebida a la que llamó pisco sour, una fórmula que funde lo peruano del pisco con el 'sour' estadounidense.").^[26]

The original recipe of the Pisco Sour, as invented by Morris, has not yet been found. According to Peruvian researcher Guillermo Toro-Lira, "it is assumed that it was a crude mix of pisco with lime juice and sugar, as was the whiskey sour of those days". The cocktail's recipe continued to evolve, and the bar's registry shows customers commented on the continuously improving taste of the drink.^[22] The last version of the recipe was developed by Mario Bruiget, a Peruvian from Chincha Alta who worked under the apprenticeship of Morris starting on July 16, 1924. Bruiget's recipe added the Angostura bitters and egg whites to the mix.^[23]

Morris used advertisements to promote his bar and invention. The oldest known mention of the Pisco Sour comes from an April 22, 1921, edition of the Peruvian magazine Mundial. In the magazine, not only is the Pisco Sour described as a white-colored beverage, but its invention is attributed to "Mister Morris".^[27] Later, in 1924, with the aid of Morris' friend Nelson Rounsevell, the bar advertised its locale and invention in Valparaíso, Chile. The advertisement featured in the Valparaíso newspaper South Pacific Mail, owned by Rounsevell.^[22] By 1927, Morris' Bar had attained widespread notability for its cocktails, particularly the Pisco Sour. Brad Thomas Parsons writes that "the registry at the Morris Bar was filled with high praise from visitors who raved about the signature drink".^[23][21]

Over time, competition from nearby bars and Victor Morris' deteriorating health led to the decline and fall of his enterprise. During this time, due to his worsening constitution, Morris delegated most of the bartending to his employees. Adding to the problem, nearby competitors, such as the Hotel Bolívar and Hotel Lima Country Club, housed bars which took clientele away from Morris' Bar. Moreover, Toro-Lira discovered that Morris accused four of his former bartenders of intellectual property theft after they left to work in one of these competing establishments. In 1929, Morris declared voluntary bankruptcy and closed his saloon. A few months later, on June 11, Victor Vaughn Morris died of cirrhosis.^[22][23]

Spread

The Hotel Bolívar was among several Lima hotels keeping alive the Pisco Sour cocktail after the closure of Morris' Bar

After Morris closed his bar, Bruiget began working as a bartender for the nearby Grand Hotel Maury, where he continued to serve his Pisco Sour recipe. His success with the drink led local Limean oral tradition to associate the Hotel Maury as the original home of the Pisco Sour.^[23] As other former apprentices of Morris found other work, they also spread the Pisco Sour recipe.^[27] During the 1930s the drink made its way into California, reaching bars as far north as the city of San Francisco.^[20] By at least the late 1960s the cocktail also found its way to New York.^[28]

Beatriz Jiménez, a journalist from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, indicates that back in Peru, the luxury hotels of Lima adopted the Pisco Sour as their own in the 1940s.^[29] During the 1940s and 1950s an oil bonanza attracted foreign attention to Peru. Among the visitors to Lima were renowned Hollywood actors who were fascinated by the Pisco Sour.^[26][30] Jiménez recollected oral traditions claiming an inebriated Ava Gardner had to be carried away by John Wayne after drinking too many Pisco Sours. Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles are said to have been big fans of what they described as "that Peruvian drink".^[29]

In 1984, Bolivian journalist Ted Córdova Claure writes that the Hotel Bolívar stood as a monument to the decadence of Peruvian oligarchy (in Spanish: "Este hotel es un monumento a la decadencia de la oligarquía peruana."). He noted the locale as being the traditional home of the Pisco Sour and recommended it as one of the best hotels in Lima.^[31] Nowadays, the Hotel Bolivar continues to offer the cocktail in its "El Bolivarcito" bar,^[32] while the Country Club Lima Hotel offers the drink in its "English Bar" saloon.^[33]

Nationality dispute

In Chile, a local story developed in the 1980s attributing the invention of the Pisco Sour to Elliot Stubb, an English steward from a sailing ship named "Sunshine". Chilean folklorist and historian Oreste Plath contributed to the legend's propagation by writing that, according to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio de Iquique, in 1872 Stubb opened a bar in the then-Peruvian port of Iquique (after obtaining leave to disembark) and invented the Pisco Sour while experimenting with drinks.^{[22][34][upper-alpha 3]} This has caused an ongoing dispute between Chile and Peru over the origin of Pisco Sour.^[35]

Nevertheless, researcher Toro-Lira argues the story "has been recently refuted when it was found that the original historical source, the newspaper El Comercio de Iquique, was mentioning instead the alleged invention of the whiskey sour and not of the Pisco Sour".^[22] This claim is further certified by the University of Cuyo, Argentina, which in 1962 published the story of Elliot Stubb and his alleged invention of the whiskey sour in Iquique. An excerpt from the story has Elliot Stubb stating, "From now on ... this shall be my drink of battle, my favorite drink, and it shall be named Whisky Sour" (in Spanish: "En adelante dijo Elliot — éste será mi trago de batalla, — mi trago favorito — , y se llamará Whisky Sour.").^[36]

Preparation and variants

Pisco transported in earthenware containers of the same name from Ica, Peru. Watercolor painting by Afro-Peruvian artist Pancho Fierro

The Peruvian and Chilean versions of the Pisco Sour are prepared differently. The Peruvian Pisco Sour cocktail is made by mixing Peruvian pisco with lime juice, simple syrup, egg white, Angostura bitters (for garnish), and ice cubes.^[20] The Chilean Pisco Sour cocktail is made by mixing Chilean Pisco with Pica lime juice, powdered sugar, and ice cubes.^[37] Daniel Joelson, a food writer and critic, contends that the major difference between both Pisco Sour versions "is that Peruvians generally include egg whites, while Chileans do not."^[38]

Considerable variations also exist in the pisco used in the cocktails. According to food and wine expert Mark Spivak, the difference is in the way both beverages are produced; whereas "Chilean pisco is mass-produced", the Peruvian version "is made in small batches".^[39] Cocktail historian Andrew Bohrer focuses his comparison on taste, claiming that "[i]n Peru, pisco is made in a pot still, distilled to proof, and un-aged; it is very similar to grappa. In Chile, pisco is made in a column still and aged in wood; it is similar to a very light cognac".^[40] Chilean oenologist Patricio Tapia adds that while Chilean pisco producers usually mix vine stocks, Peruvian producers have specific pisco types that use the aromatic qualities of vines such as Yellow Muscat and Italia. Tapia concludes this is why Peruvian pisco bottles denote their vintage year and the Chilean versions do not.^[41]

Variations of the Pisco Sour exist in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. There are adaptations of the cocktail in Peru using fruits such as maracuya, aguaymanto, and apples, or traditional ingredients such the coca leaf.^[42] In Chile, variants include the Ají Sour (with a spicy green chili), Mango Sour (with mango juice), and Sour de Campo (with ginger and honey). In Bolivia, the Yunqueño variant (from its Yungas region) replaces the lime with orange juice.^[43]

Cocktails similar to the Pisco Sour include the Chilean Piscola and the Peruvian Algarrobina Cocktail. Piscola is made by mixing pisco with cola.^[37] The Algarrobina Cocktail is made from pisco, condensed milk, and sap from the Peruvian algarroba tree.^[44] Another similar cocktail, from the United States, is the Californian Pisco punch, originally made with Peruvian pisco, pineapples, and lemon.^[45]

Popularity

Argentine president Cristina Fernández and Peruvian president Alan García toast with a Peruvian Pisco Sour

Australian journalist Kate Schneider writes in an article for News.com.au that the Pisco Sour "has become so famous that there is an International Pisco Sour Day celebration on the first Saturday in February every year, as well as a Facebook page with more than 600,000 likes".^[46] According to Chilean entrepreneur Rolando Hinrichs Oyarce, owner of a restaurant-bar in Spain, "The Pisco Sour is highly international, just like Cebiche, and so they are not too unknown" (Spanish: "El pisco sour es bastante internacional, al igual que el cebiche, por lo tanto no son tan desconocidos").^[47] In 2003, Peru created the "Día Nacional del Pisco Sour" (National Pisco Sour Day) an official government holiday celebrated on the first Saturday of February.^{[3][upper-alpha 4]}

During the 2008 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, Peru promoted its Pisco Sour with widespread acceptance. According to Antonio Brack, Peru's Environment Minister, "Pisco Sour has been the 'star' of the APEC Summit, the drink was served in several meetings at the Government Palace and the APEC Summit venue".^[48] At the start of the summit, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak affirmed that "Koreans are drinking Latin American liquors such as pisco sour, and at the same time tango, samba and salsa are gaining popularity among the younger generation in Korea".^[49]

American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain also drew attention to the cocktail when, in an episode of his Travel Channel program No Reservations, he drank a Pisco Sour in Valparaíso, Chile, and said "that's good, but ... next time, I'll have a beer". The broadcaster Radio Programas del Perú reported that Jorge López Sotomayor, the episode's Chilean producer and Bourdain's travel partner in Chile, said Bourdain found the Pisco Sour he drank in Valparaíso as boring and worthless (in Spanish: "A mí me dijo que el pisco sour lo encontró aburrido y que no valía la pena."). Lopez added that Bourdain had recently arrived from Peru, where he drank several Pisco Sours which he thought tasted better than the Chilean version.^[50]

In Mexico, singer-songwriter Aleks Syntek controversially posted on Twitter that the Pisco Sour is Chilean. After receiving critical responses to his statement, Syntek apologized and mentioned he was only joking.^[51] Mexican television host and comedian Adal Ramones also joked about Pisco Sour, in reference to the 2009 Chile–Peru espionage scandal, on November 17, 2009. Ramones, a fan of Peruvian Pisco, when asked about the espionage, asked what Chileans were spying on in Peru, suggesting it might be how to make a Pisco Sour (in Spanish: "¿Qué quieren espiar los chilenos? ¿Cómo hacer pisco sour?").^[52]

See also

• List of cocktails
• List of piscos
• Peruvian alcoholic drinks
• Singani

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Albala, Ken, ed. (2011). Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0-313-37627-1. 
• Baez Kijac, Maria (2003). The South American Table. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: The Harvard Common Press. ISBN 1-55832-248-5. 
• Blouet, Brian; Blouet, Olwyn (2009). Latin America and the Caribbean. Hoboken, New Jersey, USA: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-470-38773-4. 
• Bohrer, Andrew (2012). The Best Shots You've Never Tried. Avon, Massachusetts, USA: Adams Media. ISBN 1-4405-3879-4. 
• Bovis, Natalie (2012). Edible Cocktails. New York City: F+W Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4405-3368-6. 
• Casey, Kathy (2009). Sips and Apps. San Francisco, California, USA: Chronicle Books LLC. ISBN 978-0-8118-7823-4. 
• Castillo-Feliú, Guillermo I. (2000). Culture and Customs of Chile. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-30783-0. 
• DeGroff, Dale (2008). The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks. New York, USA: Random House Digital. ISBN 0-307-40573-7. 
• Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (1962). Anales del Instituto de Lingüística, Volúmenes 8-9. Mendoza, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. 
• Foley, Ray (2011). The Ultimate Little Cocktail Book. Naperville, Illinois, USA: Sourcebooks, Inc. ISBN 1-4022-5410-5. 
• Franco, César (1991). Celebración del Pisco. Lima, Peru: Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Participación. 
• Kosmas, Jason; Zaric, Dushan (2010). Speakeasy. New York, USA: Random House Digital. ISBN 1-58008-253-X. 
• Parsons, Brad Thomas (2011). Bitters. New York, USA: Random House Digital. ISBN 1-60774-072-9. 
• Plath, Oreste (1981). Folklore Lingüístico Chileno: Paremiología (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Editorial Nascimento. ISBN 956-258-052-0. 
• Pozo, José del (2004). Historia del Vino Chileno (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Editorial Universitaria. ISBN 956-11-1735-5. 
• Regan, Gary (2003). The Joy of Mixology, The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft. New York, USA: Clarkson Potter. ISBN 0-609-60884-3. 
• Vial Correa, Gonzalo (1981). Historia de Chile, 1891–1973: La Dictadura de Ibáñez, 1925–1931 (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Editorial Santillana del Pacífico. ISBN 956-12-1201-3. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pisco sour.

• Piscosour.com – Website about Pisco Sour.
• The Pisco Book – Website with more on Pisco recipes.
• Liquor.com – Detailed Pisco Sour preparation guide.
• Tumi – Pisco Sour served in traditional way.