Pisco Sour

Cocktail
Peruvian Pisco Sour
Type	Cocktail
Base spirit	Pisco
Served	Straight up: chilled, without ice
Standard drinkware	Old fashioned glass
Commonly used ingredients	2 fl oz (8 parts) Pisco 1 fl oz (4 parts) Lime juice 3/4 fl oz (3 part) Simple syrup 1 Egg white 1 dash Bitters
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

A Pisco Sour is a cocktail typical of Chilean and Peruvian cuisine. Its preparation requires the use of pisco, lemon or lime juice, and diverse aggregates. The two main versions of the drink, the Peruvian and Chilean, are distinguished by their national pisco types and aggregates. Variants of the cocktail include those created with fruits, like mango and pineapple, or products such as ginger, Coca-Cola, and coca leaves.

The cocktail originated in Peru, invented in the Peruvian capital of Lima by Victor Vaughn Morris in the early 1920s. An American bartender, Morris left his native United States in 1903 to work in Cerro de Pasco, a city in central Peru. In 1916, he inaugurated in Lima his saloon, Morris' Bar, which became a popular spot for the Peruvian Upper class and English-speaking foreigners. Coincidentally, the oldest mention of the Pisco Sour so far found comes from an advertisement from Morris' Bar published in a 1924 English newspaper from the Chilean port of Valparaiso.

The Pisco Sour invented by Morris 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, popular legend attributes the invention of the drink to Elliot Stubb, an English steward of a ship named Sunshine, whom allegedly mixed Key lime, syrup, and ice cubes to create the cocktail in a bar in the port city of Iquique in 1872. Nonetheless, not only was Iquique a Peruvian city at the time (prior to its annexation by Chile in the aftermath of the War of the Pacific in 1883), but the original source cited by Chilean historian Oreste Plath mentioned Stubb inventing the Whisky Sour.

Both Chile and Peru claim ownership of the Pisco Sour and denominate it their national drink. Peru considers that both Pisco and the Pisco Sour should be considered exclusively Peruvian. However, Chile contests this claim and, in turn, also claims ownership over both alcoholic beverages. Partially as a result of this controversy, the Pisco Sour holds international attention as a topic of popular culture.

Etymology

History

Background

The roots of Pisco itself reach back to the 16th century and stem from Colonial rule. The Spaniards brought the grape to the Peruvian region from Europe, but the King of Spain banned wine in the 17th Century, forcing locals to concoct a different kind of alcohol from the grape.^[1]

Guillermo Toro Lira writes in his book Wings of Cherubs that Pisco Sour's antecedent was invented near the Plaza de Toros de Acho of Lima, in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 18th century. At this time, Pisco was mixed with lemons, and received the name Punche (Spanish for Punch). This drink also served as the predecessor for the Californian Pisco punch, invented during the 20th century in the Bank Exchange Bar of San Francisco and which contains Pisco, lemon, and pineapple.^[2]

Origin

Two accounts tell the story of the invention of the Pisco Sour.

According to the Morris account, in the early 20th century the Morris' Bar of Lima, Peru, created and popularized the drink Pisco Sour. The bar's owner, Victor Vaughn Morris,^[3] was a bartender born in the United States, in Berkeley, California.^[4] Nicknamed Gringo, Victor Morris created the drink as a variety of the Whisky Sour. The Pisco Sour's popularity reached bars as far north as San Francisco in the United States by the 1930s.^[5] Renown Chilean historian Gonzalo Vial Correa also attributes the Pisco Sour's invention to "Gringo" Morris from the Peruvian Morris Bar, but presents his name as William Morris.^[6]

Peruvian researcher Guillermo Toro-Lira provides a much more detailed version of Victor Morris' invention. According to Toro-Lira, Morris was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. Morris traveled to Peru in 1903 and worked as a cashier in the Cerro de Pasco Railway Company. On April 1, 1916, he inaugurated his bar in Lima under the name "Morris' Bar". While open, the bar served as a gathering spot for English-speaking foreigners and notable individuals such as ambassadors and wealthy businessmen. Morris' Bar remained well known for its Pisco Sour, Victor Morris' invention, until 1929 when the bar closed due to Morris' declining health and increasing competition from other Limean bars, including the departure of some of Morris' bartenders to competing bars.^[7]

According to the Stubb account, the origin of the pisco sour story told of an English steward of a sailing ship named "Sunshine". In 1872, Elliot Stubb obtained leave to disembark in the port of Iquique, which was a Peruvian city at the time prior to it becoming a Chilean city in 1884, with the aim of settling in the city and opening a bar. In his bar, he experimented with many aperitifs and drinks, of which one would become the Pisco Sour.^[8]

Preparation and variants

In Chile, different spin-offs of the Pisco Sour recipe can be found, such as the Ají Sour (with a spicy green chili), Mango Sour (with mango juice), Sour de Campo (with ginger and honey), and Sour Hass (with avocados, pineapple, and mint).

In Peru, additional variations of the Pisco Sour can be found, combining some traditional Peruvian jungle fruits such as aguaymanto, cocona or traditional leaves such as the coca leaf in the Coca Sour. Another cocktail prepared with Peruvian Pisco is Chilcano (ginger ale, honey, lemon).

• 
  Aguaymanto Sour
• 
  Peruvian Pisco Sour
• Piscola
  Piscola
• 
  Tacna Sour
• 
  Chilean Pisco Sour
• 
  Algarrobina Cocktail

Nationality dispute

The national origin of the pisco sour is debated. Both Chile and Peru lay claim to the drink.^[9] In both countries, the variety of lime used is what North Americans would call Key lime but Peruvians call simply "limón" (lemon) and Chileans "limón de Pica". In the United States, the drink is usually made with commonly available Lisbon or Eureka lemons. With the increased availability of Pisco and regional bitters outside South America, the Pisco Sour, like the Mojito and Caipirinha, has increased in popularity in the United States.

Since 2003, Peru has a National Pisco Sour Day which is celebrated on the first weekend of February.^[10]

Popularity

• The comedian Zane Lamprey, host of the show Three Sheets, filmed an episode in Chile which featured various beverages, including Pisco Sour which aired in 2009.^[11]
• American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain drank, in an episode for the Travel Channel program Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations filmed in Chile, Pisco Sour at the Valparaiso restaurant "La Playa." He later expressed his disgust for the drink, to the point that at Puerto Varas he chose to drink white wine after being offered another Pisco Sour. Jorge López, the episode's Chilean producer and Bourdain's travel partner in Chile, explained that chef Bourdain found the Pisco Sour he drank in Valparaiso as "boring and worthless." Lopez added that chef Bourdain had just recently arrived from Peru, where he drank and enjoyed several Pisco Sours, which he thought were better tasting than the Chilean versions. A Chilean critic, Enrique Rivera, countered that chef Bourdain is a celebrity who generalizes the quality of a country's food by tasting only at a few places. A local newspaper in Chile further expressed that Bourdain's comment "constitutes a painful stab wound to the national pride."^[12]
• On November 17, 2009 Adal Ramones, a Mexican television show host and comedian, made a joke about Pisco Sours, in regard to the 2009 Chile-Peru espionage scandal: "What do the Chileans want to spy from Peru? How to make a good Pisco Sour?"^{[citation needed]}
• In late 2010 Mexican singer-songwriter Aleks Syntek created controversy via Twitter when he posted that the Pisco Sour is Chilean. After receiving a critical response from the Peruvian Twitter community, Syntek posted that he was only kidding.^{[citation needed]}
• In his series of novels beginning with the book Revelation Space, author Alastair Reynolds wrote several characters who prefer pisco sours, and trying to convince others to try the beverage.

See also

• List of cocktails with less common spirits
• Peruvian alcoholic drinks
• Pisco
• Sour (cocktail)

References

External links

• Go2Peru.com - Tourism site with information about Peruvian Pisco along with a recipe.
• Piscosour.com - The most complete website about Pisco Sour.