Chilcano

Revisited: 5/21/22 (from 2017)

Proposed By: David

Reviewed By: Jonathan

David: You may not be surprised to hear that revisiting, making, tasting, and reviewing these cocktails is the least challenging aspect of this blog. Take this week. Sure, Pisco isn’t in every liquor store and ginger juice requires a special trip to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but mixing this drink—and most drinks—only requires a little care and caution. As for testing, tweaking, and consuming, what could be easier than that?

And I really enjoyed returning to the Chilchano. I’m not sure why Pisco isn’t a more widely used spirit. In this cocktail, Pisco’s distinctive flavor complements the hot ginger and lime perfectly. I’d love to substitute a Chilcano for the ho-hum margaritas I’m often served with Mexican food.

What IS challenging about this blog, for me at least, is taking the photograph of the drink. I have an instagram account where I post my art and take a lot (a LOT) of pictures, but somehow when it’s time to capture cocktails, eek. I live on the seventh floor of a building in Chicago (where, thus far, it’s only sporadically spring) and have no garden for flowers and little color, really, except for my art. When you add how intimidating Jonathan and Debbie’s amazing photos are, I sometimes sweat.

The obvious solution, a friend told me recently, is to consume the cocktail first and then take a photo of the SECOND drink. Yet, I don’t have the disposition for that. Though someone might think cocktails provide liquid courage, they only offer liquid carelessness for me.

All of which is prelude, however, to saying that I did have a second Chilcano and might have had a third if my conscience hadn’t cut me off.

Jonathan: When we originally tried this cocktail David noted that Pisco was a spirit he went through pretty quickly. I told him that would not be a problem for me on the retake since I was sure I had plenty. Not sure where it went or when I used it but that was not true, thus a new bottle in my Instagram intro this week.

We tried two versions of the Chilcano de Pisco. The first used spicy Blenheim ginger ale, lime juice and Pisco without any ginger juice shot. The results were mixed as the spicy ginger was lost although the floral of the Italia grape Pisco shined. A second version subbed Gosling ginger and Peychaud’s bitters. That was a much better combination with the Pisco and ginger more evenly balanced.

Original Post:

The basis of the featured cocktail was a way to use up some of the different liquors I have accumulated. In the course of doing that though I found a cocktail that answered a nagging non-question and posed another. We will start with the cocktail and work towards the other two things.

The drink is The Chilcano which is a Pisco based drink. It is in the mule/buck style with a slight twist:

2 ounces Pisco
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce fresh ginger juice
3/4 ounce simple syrup
Ginger ale (I used 4 ounces)
Angostura bitters

Mix everything except the ginger ale, add ice, top with the ginger ale and garnish with a lime peel. The twist is the ginger juice,which you can buy in small bottles, that adds a real kick to the drink. The simple syrup seemed unnecessary so I left it out as many variations of Chilcano recipes do.

This blog has been an education with huge amounts of information to process both good and bad. One of my least favorites are the lists of in and out cocktails as if you should choose what to drink based on popularity or lack of it. Sometime around the new year I read an article that included expert bartender opinions about cocktails. One of those bartenders suggested that Moscow Mules have overstayed their welcome. His thought was that it did not matter if you liked them—they were over ordered and it was time to move on. So the non-question is whether someone else should tell you what to like. If you want to drink a Mule, do it. If you want a great variation, however, try this.

The other question posed by this drink comes from the name. In Peru, the home of Pisco, Chilcano can be a cocktail or a soup that is considered a cure for hangovers. Chilcano de Pescado is a Peruvian fish soup that traditionally starts with a fish head broth. The idea is that this soup should be consumed the morning after over-consumption to alleviate the ill effects. That made me wonder what folks thought were the most effective and the most odd hangover cures, so I did an informal poll.

The list of effective cures is not too surprising. Sleep, analgesics, and water were clearly at the top of the list. The other common ideas, none of which were fish head soup, included sugary drinks, exercise, and hair of the dog. I’m not sure drinking more is so much a cure as it is putting off the pain or crying for help.

There weren’t too many odd cures, but there were some very specific ones. One person insisted that Dr. Pepper before bed was the magic elixir, one suggested extreme hard labor, and another was just as sure a late night greasy meal was the trick.

Long ago when David would eat such things, he and I tried the latter method. He was living in Louisville and we followed a long night of beers with a stop at the local White Castle for sliders (mini-burgers for the uninitiated) to make sure we felt fine in the morning. I can’t remember if it worked but have tried or seen plenty of variations of that over the years. In college a Greek grilled cheese was a very common end to a night. If that didn’t work, one friend of mine was sure a quick meal of basic McDonald’s cheeseburgers the next day would.

David’s Review:

Clearly, Jonathan hasn’t been taking care of this spirits larder. For me, the pisco we bought oh-so-long-ago is gone… and I may have finished another bottle since then. I could account for my pisco deficit in several ways. First, I have replaced the gin in gin and tonics with pisco and experimented with it in other drinks. I even made a caipirinha with pisco, which was quite good. Second, I try not to buy a new bottle of anything until some other bottle gets empty (see #1). Third, I like pisco a lot. Four, maybe I should stop drinking altogether.

I’d say that, with the exception of the ginger elements, this drink struck me as being very like a caipirinha, but that might be a little like saying “with the exception of beef, beef stroganoff is very like a tofu stroganoff.” There’s an analogy I’m sure Jonathan will understand. The ginger is rather important and finding ginger juice was much more difficult than obtaining pisco. I settled on a “ginger shot,” a nutritional form of ginger juice I found at Whole Foods. Another choice, a bottle of squeezable ginger from our regular grocery, proved too pulpy and too sweet.

Sweetness has become one of my biggest bugaboos with mixology. It seems most drinks are too sweet to me now, and simple syrup—even the ginger-grapefruit simple syrup I made for an earlier recipe—is something (along with Jonathan) I’d skip. Pisco isn’t sweet, but, redolent of grapes, the fruity scent seems enough for me. Plus, the simple syrup seemed to interfere with the Angostura, and I like to taste my Angostura—or what’s it doing there?

Those caveats out of the way, I really liked this drink. While pisco isn’t that distinctive a spirit, it isn’t vodka, which to me is a big blank. But it isn’t like whiskey, scotch, or gin either, flavors that are instantly recognizable and thus a little more touchy to mix. If I had a friend looking to try some new spirit, in fact, I might recommend pisco as a safe bet for something he or she might like.

Oh, and for hangovers, by the way, I always recommend a punishing (and penitent) workout followed by Gatorade or coconut water.

David’s take: If Jonathan still hasn’t exhausted his pisco supply, I’m willing to buy another bottle to help him get to the bottom of it.

Jonathan’s take: Don’t listen to the experts listen to me, The Chilcano is excellent. At least the non-fish head version is.

Next Time (Proposed by Jonathan):

Bees Knees is a classic. We’ll give that one another try and see how if we can find some tweaks to shake things up.