Pisco is French brandyโs lesser known, under-appreciated South American cousin. Whereas aged grape spirits bring nuance and maturity to a cocktail, the unaged pisco brings the funk (and the ensuing party). Many bottlings include floral notes like jasmine and rose, tropical fruits like pineapple and ripe melon, baking spices and black pepper, nutty almond, and grassier flavors like pine. Meanwhile the spiritโs lack of aging, which can be a defining factor in other brandy-based beverages, lets pisco play well with other ingredients in diverse cocktails. While many piscos match beautifully with lime and egg white in a simple Pisco Sour, the intriguing tastes of the spirit work with a huge array of flavors and textures, from vegetal to bitter to creamy. Get to know your new favorite booze with these 11 delicious pisco drinks.
Odds are if you come across pisco in the U.S., itโll be starring in this South American Sour. The citrusy fluff of the cocktail bursts on the palate like a bite of cotton candy and finishes dry, making it a light delight. Feel free to live your best life by using real Peruvian limรณn, but if there isnโt any readily available, key lime will do just fine as a substitute.
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Like the Sour, the classic cocktail formula for the Buck works equally well adapted with pisco. Itโs named for a fish head soup traditionally used as a hangover cure in Peru, and while it isnโt fishy, it will clear your drowsy mind the morning after a rough night. Ginger beer invigorates piscoโs vegetal character, creating a glass of grassy spice that could wake the dead.
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Before Prohibition, pisco was quickly climbing the charts in American metropolitan areas like San Francisco, charming drinkers with its unaged vitality. While the dry period put a major damper on that fervorโonly to be truly revived of lateโthe pre-Prohibition hordes could only be satisfied with this big batch pisco drink, which combines lovable pisco with equally approachable pineapple syrup.
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If you thought raw pisco was vegetal on its own, wait until you get a sip of this epic vegetable cocktail. Spring peas also have a reputation for sweet, savory, heavenly flavor, so infusing them into pisco is a green dream team. Donโt worry; the resulting cocktail isnโt overly herbal like some regrettable green juice, but drinking one as an aperitif surely qualifies as the best salad course ever.
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Avocado sticks out like a sore thumb among dessert drink ingredients like chocolate, strawberry and honey, but pisco acts as a bridge between the worlds of sweet and savory. An avocado infusion mellows the grape spirit, giving it a silkier, creamier texture, which settles in nicely with crรจme de cacao and crรจme de fraise (strawberry liqueur). The drink is a perfectly balanced enigma.
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It takes a soft hand to perfect matcha, as brewing too aggressively will quickly turn the tea into a muddy, bitter mess. But brewing it precisely yields a delicate whisper of flavor that blossoms on your palate. A classic Pisco Sour is the perfect vehicle for that taste, lifting that flowering taste on a gentle breeze of booze.
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Great as your grandmaโs rendition might be, Eggnog is just way better in Chile, where itโs made with lively local moonshine. Swapping in more available pisco keeps the spirit of the original while cutting the thick holiday drink with dry brightness. Itโs especially good when combined with traditional, budget staples like instant coffee and canned evaporated milk, along with the usual holiday spices.
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Lesser known spirits like pisco and mastiha can give even blue curaรงao some esoteric cred, as can be tasted in this cocktail that pairs the unlikely trio with navy strength rum, coconut water and lime. The bright blue concoction might remind you of syrupy sippers past, but we guarantee that it tastes all natural, with pine-forward mastiha combining wonderfully with the grassier side of pisco.
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Another day, another Pisco Sour, right? Wrong! Adding a dash of citrusy Riesling emboldens the drink with complex sweetness, which creator Eric Books of Craigie on Main in Cambridge, Massachusetts, likens to lemon meringue pie. This recipe calls for grapefruit lime cordial, but seasonal citrus will give the drink new life over and over as the year goes by, constantly proving the Pisco Sour is an old dog that can learn new tricks.
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Swapping the orange liqueur in a Sidecar for blue curaรงao immediately gives the classic drink some visual pizzazz, but doesnโt do much to alter the taste inside. Using pisco instead of the traditional Cognac, though, immediately boosts the cocktailโs flavor to match is vibrant skin. The upgrade is as distinctive as a swirl of Angostura bitters on the drinkโs velvety blue blanket.
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