COCKTAILS: Pisco Sour Day to brighten winter nights
Missed Pisco Sour Day? Don’t worry, this year, Christine Sismondo gives you a do-over.
Technically speaking, National Pisco Sour Day, celebrated worldwide on the first Saturday of February, has already passed. Seems like it gets earlier every year, right?
If you missed it, well, it’s probably because you were either distracted by the looming Iowa caucus, the impeachment trial or, perhaps, the promise of J. Lo and Shakira’s half-time show. With all that was going on, we think it’s perfectly fine to have a do-over and repurpose the second Saturday of the month for pisco sours. After all, we need some help getting through the mid-winter blues.
Credit: Encanto Pisco
Some people might wonder at Moose Milk covering made-up holidays but, as an historian, it’s literally my job to point out that all holidays and traditions were made up at some point—most of them more recently than we imagine. Plus, National Pisco Sour Day is the O.G. of made up National (Fill-in-the-Blank) Days.
Long before National Crouton Day, Lumpy Rug Day and Lima Bean Respect Day* were even a glimmer in marketers’ eyes, there was the Día Nacional del Pisco Sour. Celebrated in Peru since 2003, when the national holiday was first commemorated, Pisco Sour Day is the granddaddy of all those contemporary hashtag holidays—a truly remarkable instance of being ahead of the curve, given that Twitter didn’t even exist back then.
As near as we can tell, Peru’s National Pisco Sour Day was a natural outgrowth of the country’s Día del Pisco (established circa 1999), which falls on the fourth Sunday of every July. Need a second holiday? Easy. Add the word “sour.” Everybody wins. This also makes Peru the only country we’re aware of to have two national holidays based on spirits or cocktails—a nation that obviously has its priorities in order.
Of course, the reason Peru has been so pro-active with its alco-holidays has a lot to do with laying claim to ownership of pisco, which is hotly contested by Chile. Both claim the grape brandy is an important part of their national culture and heritage. And both countries also claim to be the birthplace of the grape spirit, a debate that inevitably invokes a long history lesson about small Spanish colonial towns named pisco north and south of the border and the “Saltpeter War” of the early 1880s.
Who’s right? Hard to say. But did we mention that Chile’s National Pisco Day (May 15) wasn’t even established until 2009? If it was such an important part of your culture, wouldn’t you have made it a holiday way earlier? Also, what if May 15 fell on a Monday. In Peru, they treat it the way we would treat elections if we cared about disenfranchisement, by making sure as many people as possible can get the day off and celebrate pisco. Advantage: Peru.
Anyhow, we’re facing the second Saturday of February, so it’s time to brush up the pisco sour skills we need to properly celebrate the only National (fill-in-the-blank) Day worth celebrating.
To start, if you don’t have any on hand, you are going to have to buy some pisco. Since a lot of people who read this are in Ontario and the LCBO is out of Peruvian pisco, some people are going to have to celebrate with Chilean pisco. Advantage: Chile.
A lot of Chilean pisco is great and I’m not just saying that ’cause it’s the only option we’ve got. The main difference between the two (aside from region) is in the rules of production. In Peru, they can’t add water or age the spirit in wood; in Chile they can, but they have fewer grapes to work with. The difference in production methods is part of the reason that Peru recently rejected a proposal from Chile that they work together to share a Pisco D.O.C. and set their sights on world domination. Peru turned this opportunity down flat, arguing that pisco could only be made in five regions of Peru—Arequipa, Ica, Lima, Moquegua and Tacna. Anything outside of that, including everything made in Chile, was mere “grape brandy.” That’s pisco diplomacy in action.
Pisco diplomacy is a real thing. Even non-drinking foreign dignitaries have to drink pisco when visiting Peru.
So get yourself some grape brandy, limes, special fine granulated sugar, salt and a bottle of Angostura bitters (full recipe below). It’s a really easy cocktail to make, exactly what you want to give yourself a little lift in February (nicely played, Peru) and way better than the alternative celebration for this weekend—National Bubblegum Day.
Pisco Sour
2 oz pisco
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon egg white
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
1 tiny pinch of salt
3 drops Angostura bitters
Shake all ingredients (except Ango bitters) together in an ice-filled cocktail shaker—and shake well. Like, for 60 seconds. Fine strain into chilled coupe glass. add Ango to the foamy top.
*For the record: Lumpy Rug Day is May 3; Crouton Day is May 13 and Lima Bean Respect Day is April 20.