Pisco Sour
Peru's national cocktail: a cloud of citrus foam over grape brandy, crowned with three drops of bitters — tart, silky and gloriously proud. Ingredients: Peruvian pisco, fresh lime juice (the small, fierce Peruvian limón), sugar syrup, egg white, ice, and Angostura bitters for the crown. Method: 1) Shake pisco, lime, syrup and egg white first without ice to build the foam, then with ice to chill. 2) Strain into a chilled glass. 3) Finish with drops of bitters on the foam — the signature flourish. The experience: a perfect sour — bright lime, grape-bright pisco, and a meringue-soft top. History: the pisco sour is commonly credited to American bartender Victor Vaughen Morris, who mixed it at his Lima bar in the 1920s; Peru loves it so officially that the first Saturday of every February is Día del Pisco Sour, a national holiday for a cocktail.