Pisco Sour

A Pisco Sour is a cocktail typical of western South American cuisine. The drink's name is a mixture of the Quechua word Pisco ('Bird') and the term Sour (in reference to the mixed drink family of the same name). The Peruvian Pisco Sour requires the use of Peruvian Pisco as the base liquor and the addition of lime (or lemon) juice, syrup, ice, egg white, and Angostura bitters.
Other variants of the cocktail include those created with fruits like pineapple or plants such as 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 mentions of the Pisco Sour so far found come from a 1921 magazine attributing Morris as the inventor and a 1924 advertisement from Morris' Bar published in a newspaper from the port of Valparaiso, Chile.






 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, 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, the original source cited by Plath attributed Stubb the invention of Whiskey Sour and not Pisco 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.

La receta

Ingredients

• 3 parts Pisco.
• 1 parts jarabe de goma
• 1 part lime juice
• 1 egg white.
• Crushed ice.

1.     Mix the pisco with the jarabe de goma in a blender. Add the lime juice.

2.     Add the crushed ice and blend.

3.     Add the egg whites.

4.     Blend until the texture is smooth and even. The egg white should be foamy.

Serve in small glasses. Add a few drops of angostura bitters and a pinch of ground cinnamon.

Tips

• Jarabe de goma is cane syrup. If you don't have any, you can use a number of similar substitute, such a simple syrup; a couple of spoonfuls of sugar; a little corn syrup, or Sprite. Most pisco sour recipes use some form of liquid sugar, so that there are no sugar crystals left in the drink.
• Alternate recipes call for substituting lime juice for lemon juice (use small, strong-flavored limes for best taste).