Pisco Sour
Pisco, lime and egg white, with bitters drawn on the foam.
Photo: Pisco Sour 2 by Erich Wagner (www.eventografie.de) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 720 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 720 ml line. Pisco - A Peruvian pisco - the aromatic, unaged sort
- 360 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 360 ml line. Lemon juice - Fresh, and in Peru it is often lime - either is very good
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Simple syrup
- 12 egg whites Egg white - What gives it the famous head of foam (optional)
- 36 dashes Bottle 36 quick shake of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Angostura bitters - Amargo Chuncho is the Peruvian one; Angostura is the honest stand-in
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Dry-shake everything, shake again with ice, strain and dot bitters on the foam.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 1.32 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Put the pisco, lemon juice, syrup and egg white in a shaker without ice and shake hard for ten seconds - this is the trick that makes the foam.
- Add ice and shake again, hard, until the tin is properly cold.
- Strain into a chilled goblet, letting the foam settle on top.
- Shake three dashes of bitters onto the foam, or draw a little pattern with a skewer if you are feeling pleased with yourself.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Pisco Sour
Peru and Chile both claim the pisco sour, and both are entitled to be cross about it. The version that most of the world drinks was refined in Lima in the 1920s by an American bartender, Victor Morris, and it has been the signature of Peruvian bars ever since - sour, aromatic, silky with egg white and finished with a few dashes of bitters on top.
Getting it right
A sour is a balance, and the balance here is pisco's: it is fruity and slightly floral, so it wants a touch more syrup than a gin sour would. The technique that matters most is the dry shake - the egg white needs thirty seconds of shaking without ice to build its foam, and no amount of shaking with ice will do it afterwards. If the egg white makes you uneasy, leave it out; you lose the head of foam but the drink underneath is still a very good one. And do not skip the bitters: they are not decoration, they are a spice note over the citrus.
Tasting notes
Grape and citrus first, then a soft, silky sourness, and clove and cinnamon drifting off the foam. Sharper and lighter than a whiskey sour, and rather more elegant.
It is traditionally drunk around noon, which tells you most of what you need to know about Lima.