I am fortunate to be a member of the Seattle LUPEC chapter.  Being a member of this organization affords me certain opportunities, such as attending LUPEC 301: Introduction to Pisco taught by Professor Kuehner.  Up until this event, I had not tried Pisco; I just hadn’t yet added it to the bar.  So it was with great anticipation that I attended the pisco tutorial.  My fellow LUPEC comrade, C. Randall of Cocktail Quest fame takes better notes than I and is a serious student of booze and cocktail history.  I will not go into detail here on the history of pisco or the details of producing this beverage; instead, I want you to go here for the deets.

For the purposes of what I want to discuss, I will provide that pisco is a grape brandy and can be of Chilean or Peruvian origin and dates back to a really long time ago; 1500ish. The LUPEC event was sponsored by Piscologia, a Peruvian Pisco and all of the Piscologia pisco cocktails crafted by Prof. Kuehner were brilliant.  Again, take a detour here to read about more about pisco and pisco cocktails.

As you can imagine, I promptly visited my local liquor store for my very own bottle of Piscologia and have enjoyed several Piso cocktails since that LUPEC event.  To commemorate National Pisco Sour Day, I will offer up my version of the classic Pisco Sour, which is really B.T. Parson’s version from his wonderful book, Bitters (in which I continue to be completely infatuated).

Happy Pisco Sour Day!

Pisco Sour

• 60 ml pisco (Piscologia)
• 30 ml lime juice
• 15 ml simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• Angostura and Amargo Chuncho Bitters for garnish

Dry shake all ingredients except bitters.
Add ice and shake again.
Double strain into chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with both Angostura and Amargo bitters by dropping onto egg white foam and using a toothpick to swirl.