Pisco Sour

This is the national cocktail of Peru. (And also of Chile actually; both countries claim vehemently to have created the cocktail.) It is an elegant and tasty drink that’s easy to serve en masse at a gathering of friends. Pisco is a clear Peruvian brandy that is fairly easy to find outside of the country. While we were in Peru, Angela and I ordered our fair share of these drinks, but perhaps the best pisco sour we ever tasted was at a friend Teresa’s family home in Lima. While the kids played in the yard, I helped Teresa’s brother prepare the pisco sours. Like a manic surgeon, he approached the process with a combination of pedantic precision and exuberant flair. Unfortunately (but inevitably, I suppose, given his frantic knife-work) he cut his finger while slicing the limes. I remember distinctly how, when he spooned the creamy froth onto the drinks and adorned each with a few drops of bitters, as per his recipe, he inadvertently smeared the white head of one of the drinks with his blood. Thankfully, he kept this one for himself, insisting that blood was the secret ingredient. From that day forward, whenever I drip the finishing touch of bitters onto the head of a pisco sour, I can think only of drops of blood.

When the cocktails were served on that pleasant December evening, we sipped our drinks with friends, old and new, and watched the sun set on our last night in Peru. As we chatted the evening away, discussing politics and reminiscing about our Peruvian adventures, Angela and I felt that, after three months, we too belonged to that place. Yes, that was the perfect pisco sour. If only I could figure out a way to put all of that into a cocktail shaker…

Ingredients:

· 2 oz pisco (Peruvian brandy, which is clear to light amber in color)

· 1 oz key lime (or lemon or common lime) juice

· 1 T caster sugar (you can make this fine sugar by putting granulated sugar in the blender) or 1 ½ T simple syrup (½ sugar, ½ water, boiled to dissolve sugar and cooled)

· 1 egg white

· 4-5 drops of Angostura Bitters

· 2-3 ice cubes

· Crushed ice

Directions:

1. Place pisco, lime juice, sugar and egg white in a cocktail shaker with the ice cubes.

2. Shake and strain into an ice filled glass.

3. Add 4-5 drops of bitters to the drink’s frothy head.

4. Garnish with a slice of lime.