Pisco Sour
The pisco sour is a cocktail made with pisco and lemon juice. The name comes from the union of the words "pisco" (a type of grape brandy) and "sour" (referring to the family of cocktails that use lemon as part of their recipe). It is included in the gastronomy of Peru, prepared with a different recipe respectively, and with some variations in the rest of its basic ingredients. Peru and Chile debate that the pisco sour is their national or typical cocktail, with each claiming sole ownership.
About the origin of this cocktail there is controversy among experts. Peruvian researchers consider only one origin in Peru. Chilean opinion considers that it originates from Chile. In 2004 the Peruvian government created an annual holiday in honor of the pisco sour, on the first Saturday of February, since then it has been celebrated every year, and in 2007 declared the pisco sour as Cultural Patrimony of the Nation.
The first documentary references to the expression «pisco sour» and the preparation of this cocktail have been found in Peru, in two articles published in the Lima magazines Hogar, from September 1920, and in Mundial, from 1921. To these is added an advertisement published in Chile, in the weekly The South Pacific Mail of Valparaíso, in July 1924, by the which promotes the Bar Morris located in the Peruvian capital, Lima.
The oldest references to the use of the term «pisco sour» in Chile can be found in the aforementioned advertisement in The South Pacific Mail of 1924, and in the novel La chica del Crillón of the Chilean writer Joaquín Edwards Bello, from 1934. Likewise, a commentary was found in the registry of the Bar Morris in Lima, dated June 10, 1927, a generic mention of the eventual preparation of this cocktail in Chile and, furthermore, in a report published in the newspaper Los Angeles Times, on November 27, 1928, its preparation in Santiago de Chile is indicated.
Background
The antecedent of a drink in which pisco would have been mixed with lemon, would be located in the Viceroyalty of Peru, around the 18th century, where near the Plaza de Toros de Acho, in Lima, the so-called Punch. Indeed, the Mercurio Peruano of January 13, 1791, in a narrative about Lima customs, describes how the town criers sold under the name of "watercress water" a "punch" or punch, so overloaded with brandy, that it would be disastrous in less moderate towns. In this regard, Luciano Revoredo refers that, in this way, the Peruvian Mercurio would account for the sale in the Lima bullfighting arena of the "punche", which would be pisco with lemon; He adds that the prohibition on the sale of brandy in the area would be a consequence of the fights and drunkenness that originated there, and that for this reason the black slaves circumvented the restriction by trading pisco under various names. According to Revoredo, the "punche" 3. 4; It could be an antecedent of the Pisco punch, a cocktail prepared at the end of the 19th century, in the Bank Exchange bar in San Francisco, California, a mixture of pisco, lemon and pineapple.
On the other hand, the Frenchman Gabriel Lafond du Lucy, in a work published in 1853, which narrates the trip he made to Chile in 1822, reports that the Chilean huasos at that time used to drink a cold punch prepared with brandy, lemon, water and sugar.
In turn, a recipe book published in Lima in 1903, describes a cocktail prepared with a glass of pisco, an egg white, fine sugar and a few drops of lemon, ingredients that were shaken in a cocktail shaker to form a &# 34;punchy".
History
Pisco sour in Peru
The cocktail called “pisco sour” originated in Lima before 1920, at the Morris' Bar (also referred to as Morris Bar, Bar Morris or Bar de Morris) on Calle Boza 847, in Jirón de La Unión in downtown Lima, where the pisco sour was offered as a novelty, inspired by the whiskey sour. According to José Antonio Schiaffino, in The Origin of the Pisco Sour, the inventor of the cocktail It would have been the Californian Víctor V. Morris, owner of the Bar Morris, which had opened its doors in 1915 and closed in 1933; in turn, according to another version, it would have been prepared in the same bar by Peruvian bartenders Alfonso Bregoye, Graciano Cabrera and Alberto Mezarina.
According to Guillermo Toro-Lira, the Bar de Morris opened its doors in 1916 and closed in 1929, where the following would have worked as bartenders: Leónidas Arteta, Augusto S. Rodríguez, Hernán B. Bruijet, Víctor H. Conde, Alfonso G. Matos, Rafael S. Vargas, Mario Bruijet and Juan de Dios Mejía, and that the creator of the pisco sour would be the owner of the bar, but since it has not been possible to find the recipe for the pisco sour by Víctor Morris, it is not possible to determine if it consisted of a simple mixture of pisco with lemon juice and sugar, as was the whiskey sour of that time, or was identical to the recipe for the Peruvian pisco sour prepared today., Toro-Lira has maintained that the original recipe would have evolved in the Bar de Morris, for 18 or 20 years, until reaching its current formulation, with the intervention of the bartender Mario Bruijet (Mario Bruiget), that he would be its co-creator, and that he would later work at the Hotel Maury.
The first documentary references to the "pisco sour" appear in 1920 and 1921. In an article by Luis Alberto Sánchez, published in the magazine Hogar of Lima in September 1920, and in the magazine Mundial No. 52 of Lima, published on April 22, 1921, an article entitled "De lo huachafo a lo criollo", narrates the gatherings of Lima-born José Julián Pérez, who he drinks a whitish liqueur prepared by a bartender from the Boza bar owned by Mister Morris and that "after pouring several "pisco-sours", exclaimed triumphantly: - The huachafería! Creole!"
In the Valparaíso weekly South Pacific Mail, dated July 1924, owned by Nelson Rounsevell, a friend of Víctor Morris he met in Cerro de Pasco, the latter advertises his bar, pointing out (translation): "Have you checked in at the Morris Bar LIMA? [...] has been known for many years for its "Pisco Sours""
In "Lima, the City of Viceroys", a guide from the years 1928-1929, written by Cipriano Laos, there is a note promoting Bar Morris, in which indicates the pisco sour as one of its specialties:
Morris Vctor V. — Morris BarIt imports all kinds of wines, liqueurs, beers, etc., from which it has a select assortment of the best brands. This bar has been famous for the exquisite preparation of its "pisco-sour" and " wisky-sour", cocktails, etc. in which it uses genuine liqueurs.
Location: Lima, Boza Street No. 847. Tel. No. 2235.Laos, Cipriano A.: "Lima, the City of the Virreyes", p. 552
The most elegant hotels of the time imitated the cocktail and that is how the pisco sour arrived at the Hotel Maury, on the corner of Ucayali and Carabaya streets, and at the Gran Hotel Bolívar, in Plaza San Martín intersection with Colmena avenue. It has also been pointed out that it was the bartenders of the Bar Morris, who, when it closed, spread the recipe in the hotels of Lima. On the other hand, the Hotel Maury is credited with creating the pisco sour in its current formulation.
Since then, and due to its flavor, this appetizer has spread incessantly not only in Peru but in the countries where it arrived thanks to the Peruvian food restaurants that exist there.
In 2003, the Peruvian government issued instructions to promote its consumption locally and internationally. Thus, all the departments of the Peruvian State, its diplomatic and consular missions and representations before international organizations, in their accounts of expenses in purchases of liquors, must have fifty percent to acquire pisco and fifty percent for other liquors. The enthusiasm of local pisco producers for this official measure has been such that the increase in their production has been notorious. In the same way, it was decided that the official invitation cards would no longer mention the classic "cocktail of honor" or "wine of honor" but "pisco de honor".
By Ministerial Resolution 161-2004-PRODUCE, dated April 22, 2004, the first Saturday of February of each year was instituted as Pisco Sour Day, nationwide ", replacing the previous norm that set February 8.
On October 18, 2007, the National Institute of Culture of Peru (INC) declared pisco sour as Cultural Heritage of the Nation based on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Unesco, the General Law of Cultural Heritage of the Nation and the Directive on Recognition and Declarations of Current Cultural Manifestations as Cultural Heritage.
Pisco sour in Chile
The oldest documentary references to the term «pisco sour» published in Chile are from 1924 and 1934. In the weekly The South Pacific Mail of Valparaíso, in July 1924, an advertisement was published promoting the Morris Bar, located in Lima, Peru, stating that the Morris Bar has been recognized for many years for its "pisco sours". In 1934, the Chilean writer Joaquín Edwards Bello, in his novel La chica del Crillón, published the following year, mentions a drink called "pisco sour, or rotting-sour", composed of pisco and lemons, which some characters in the play drank.
Peruvian researcher Guillermo Toro-Lira indicates that in the registry of the Bar Morris in Lima, dated June 10, 1927, the American D. Martin, who had arrived from Rancagua, wrote (translation): "The Pisco Sours are better than the ones in Chile" possibly comparing pisco-based cocktails in a generic way. In turn, on November 27, 1928, a report by Fred Hogue, who had visited Santiago de Chile, was published in the newspaper Los Angeles Times the previous month, where he indicates that he had had two "pisco sours" at the Union Club.
Toro-Lira, indicates that given the lack of documents that verify the existence of pisco sour in Chile before the opening of the Bar Morris in Lima, Peru, it can be concluded that the Chilean pisco sour It would have been created at approximately the same time as those prepared at the Lima hotels Bolívar, Maury and Country Club, among other establishments that competed with the bar by Victor Morris.
Oreste Plath, in El Santiago que se fue: Apuntes de la memoria of 1997, indicates that in Plaza Baquedano, «were the Establecimientos Oriente, which had a delicatessen, tea room and restaurant" and there "the Bar Oriente was a meeting place, at midday and midafternoon, good wines and spirits, pisco sour, pods and Tom Collins" and that on the second floor was the restaurant where "the maitres Lucho Moxia and Lucho Riffo" attended. Plath does not mention dates, but the Orient Establishments were in operation in the 1970s.
In the last few years, the Chilean pisco industry began to commercialize pisco sour by bottling it on a large scale. The Chilean regulation of the latter defines it as the cocktail produced and packaged in Regions III and IV, prepared with pisco, lemon juice from Pica or its natural flavoring, and may also contain authorized additives such as stabilizers, thickeners, emulsifiers, cloudiness and colorants (article 58 of Decree 28 of 1986, of the Ministry of Agriculture). Its minimum alcohol content must be 12° Gay-Lussac and its minimum impurity content of 2.5 grams per liter. This regulation accepts that this drink, in its industrial form, is prepared with the juice of other citrus fruits or their natural flavorings, but in this case the product must be called "pisco sour", followed by the name of the corresponding fruit.
Elliot Stubb
According to the account of the Peruvian researcher Guillermo Toro-Lira, in the mid-1980s, a legend spread in Chile that held that the pisco sour would have been invented in the city of Iquique in 1872, when an English butler named Elliot Stubb, who arrived on the sailboat Sunshine, mixed pisco with lemon juice and sugar for the first time in a bar.
In fact, in 1985, the Chilean folklorist Oreste Plath published said story in the Valparaíso newspaper La Estrella, told by Carlos Díaz, who would have based himself on certain traditions and on what was exposed in the newspaper The Trade of Iquique.
[...] He told me, years ago, the journalist Carlos Díaz Vera, who, listening to traditions and reading some chronicles of the newspaper "El Comercio" in Iquique, knew that the Pisco Sour originates from the port that gave glory to the Chilean Navy. The truth would be that a good stewardship of the Sunshine sailboat determined to anchor in Chile and requested its descent to settle with a canteen in the port. It was established in the vicinity of the passenger dock, on Vivar Street, as an expert bartender, in their business they tasted exquisite snacks prepared exclusively and based on Pica lemon. One day Elliot Stubb - that was the name of the cook- was doing some experiments in the cocktail with pisco and lemon from Pica, and then the taste of the prepared reached higher delights. "I'm going to give him some sweet," he would have said. He pumped sugar into a portion of Pica lemon juice, a piece of ice, pisco in proportion and beat a few seconds. He tried and said he got the most exquisite drink. Onwards, said Elliot, this will be my battle drink, my favorite, and it will be called Pisco Sour (sour, lemon acid). The Pisco sour soon passed to spread as an obligatory snack in the social clubs and bars of the port of Iquique and very soon, like the salitre, dominated the country and then the borders. The village, to this mix of cheap aguardiente, calls it Roto Sagüer.Oreste Plath. Diario La Estrella de Valparaíso. Saturday, 22 March 1985
The aforementioned story was recently refuted, when it was determined that the original historical source, the newspaper El Comercio de Iquique, actually indicated an alleged invention of the whiskey sour. In 1962, a publication of the National University of Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) contains a narrative about the character Elliot Stubb, as the creator of the whiskey sour in the port of Iquique.
The Whisky Sour is originally from the Chilean port of Iquique. The truth is that a good stewardship of the Sunshine sailboat determined to cast anchors in the port of Iquique and was established in the vicinity of the passenger dock with a bar. One day Elliot Stubb was named the barman, was doing some experiments in the "cocktailer" with spicy whiskey and lemon and his taste reached delights superior to all the other beans that used to give their customers. "I'm gonna put some sweet on him," he said. He pumped sugar into a portion of Pica lemon juice, a bit of ice, whisky in proportion and beat a few seconds and tried the most exquisite drink he had prepared. Onward said Elliot — this will be my battle drink, — my favorite drink — and will be called Whisky Sour (sour, lemon acid). It then dominated the borders and made its appearance in England, where the fame of Pica lemon was already established, which until now continues to be exported to the capital of the United Kingdom and other points of the British Islands.Institute of Linguistics (Vol. VIII edition). 1962. p. 385
Another publication from 1988 explains that the source of the above story would be the files of El Comercio de Iquique, which would have been found in the Club Chino. El Comercio de Iquique was founded by Modesto Molina from Tacna in 1874 and ceased publication in December 1879, when Chilean forces occupied the Peruvian port during the War of the Pacific. Ancón, Peru handed over to Chile the Department of Tarapacá where the port of Iquique was located.
Preparation
In bars in Peru it is only prepared with pisco from Peru, on the other hand, in Chile it is possible to find bars that not only offer it with Chilean pisco but also with pisco from Peru, under the name "Peruvian pisco sour" ».
Regarding the quality of its preparation, there are varied opinions. Stolen.
Regarding the ingredients, the pisco sour prepared in Chile has gradually stopped using its traditional recipe (with powdered sugar) and instead is being prepared according to the Peruvian recipe (with Angostura bitters, syrup and a white of egg) but with Chilean pisco.
Popularity
Australian journalist Kate Schneider wrote in an article for News.com.au that the pisco sour "has become so famous that there is a sour International Pisco Day celebration on the first Saturday of February each year, as well as a Facebook page with more than 600,000 likes".
According to Chilean businessman Rolando Hinrichs Oyarce, owner of a restaurant-bar in Spain, "The pisco sour is very international, just like the cebiche, and they are not too unknown".
In 2003 the Peruvian government created "National Pisco Sour Day," an official holiday celebrated on the first Saturday of February.
During the 2008 APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, Peru promoted its pisco sour to wide acclaim. According to Antonio Brack, Peru's environment minister: "The pisco sour has been the 'star' of the APEC summit, the drink is served at various meetings at the Government Palace and the APEC Summit venue. At the start of the summit, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak stated that & #34;Koreans are drinking Latin American spirits like pisco sour, and at the same time tango, samba and salsa are gaining popularity among the younger generation in Korea".
American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain in an episode of his Travel Channel show: No Reservations, drank a pisco sour in the Chilean city of Valparaíso, and said it tasted good, but... "Next time, I'll have a beer." Jorge López Sotomayor, the episode's Chilean producer and Bourdain's partner in Chile, said: "Bourdain found the pisco sour he drank in Valparaíso boring and worthless." López added that Bourdain had recently arrived from Peru, where he drank several pisco sours, and found them all good, much better than the one he had tasted in Chile.
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