Edgar’s Bar Book Edgars

Sour · 1920s

Pisco Sour

Peru's national sour, capped with foam and three drops of bitters.

Batch it

Specification

Pisco60 ml
Fresh lime juice25 ml
Sugar syrup 1:120 ml
Egg white20 ml
Angostura3 drops
Batch it for a party

Method

  1. 01Dry shake pisco, lime, syrup and egg white for 12 seconds.
  2. 02Add ice and shake hard again for 12 seconds.
  3. 03Double strain into a chilled coupe and let the foam set.
  4. 04Drop three dots of Angostura onto the foam.
Walk through it step by step

Where it comes from

Credited to Victor Morris's bar in Lima in the early 1920s, and now claimed with equal conviction by Peru and Chile. The foam is not decoration: it carries the aromatic bitters right under your nose.

If you change one thing: Let the foam settle for thirty seconds before adding bitters, or the drops sink and you lose the aroma entirely.

More like this

CaipirinhaCachaça, lime and sugar muddled straight into the glass. AviationGin, maraschino and a few millilitres of violet. Pale sky-blue and utterly of its era. Last WordFour equal parts, one of them Chartreuse. It should not work, and it does.