Pisco sours are a source of great national pride (and rivalry!) for two South American countries – Peru and Chile. Pisco sours are thick and foamy cocktails made by combining pisco (a distilled grape brandy) with lime juice, simple syrup, and an egg white – topped with a few dashes of Angostura bitters. There has been a long-standing, heated debate on which country pisco sours originated from.
Peru claims that the cocktail was first made in Lima around 100 years ago while Chile holds strong that they were the first to issue commercial trademarks and legal recognition of the spirit. The regulations for what constitutes “pisco” in Peru and Chile both overlap and differ making things more complicated. Peruvian pisco has much stricter regulations while there are some leniences with Chilean pisco.
