Plum Pisco Sour

👩🏻‍🍳 Tamara Talks – Recipe Inspiration

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I have a love affair with Peru. After spending the month of June in Cuzco and the Sacred Valley in 2017, 2018, and 2019, we miss it more than ever. 2020… Right?

Pisco cocktails outside of Peru are not widely available in bars, but pisco is available in many (if not most) liquor stores in much of the US. Playing at mixology has produced a chilcano de maracuya (passionfruit), a star anise chilcano, a pisco lemonade, a chicha morada and pisco cocktail, and a blood orange pisco cocktail.

So, why spiced plum syrup? I was brainstorming ways to use my syrup, and as a cocktail ingredient was high on the list. I initially tried it with bourbon and gin, but it was the pisco that made it sing.

The quintessential ubiquitous Peruvian cocktail is a pisco sour. Recipes for pisco sours abound, so I have not focused on them, but pisco sour variants are definitely on my radar.

About Egg White in my Cocktail

Lots of cocktails benefit from a creamy mouthfeel, but they rely on heavy cream, coconut cream, etc. to attain it, and the added calories to match! Frothy egg white provides that same creamy mouth feel, with far fewer calories.

I am a lover of homemade caesar salad dressing and homemade aioli, both which require raw eggs. Raw egg whites often make their way into a proper mousse, and always into a proper egg nog!

To make sure your eggs are free from salmonella:

• Buy fresh eggs. Farmers markets are a plus!
• Wash the eggs thoroughly.
• Wash your hands thoroughly.

According to statistics from the National Safety Council, you’re about 4 times more likely to choke on a handful of bar nuts than you are to get salmonella poisoning from raw egg. 😉

If you’re squeamish about consuming raw eggs, I’m not going to change your mind. You can pasteurize the eggs yourself, or you can purchase pasteurized eggs.

📋 Ingredients Notes

Here is a quick look at the ingredients in the recipe – it’s handy to use at the grocery store or as a summary of what you need. Skip to the recipe for quantities.

• pisco – You can use whatever pisco is available to you! I don’t usually have options here in the US. I do try to bring home 4-5 bottles when we go to Peru!
• spiced plum syrup
• fresh lime juice
• egg white
• orange bitters

🔪 Instructions

1. Mix the cocktail – add all ingredient except bitters to a cocktail shaker without ice. Shake as vigorously as you possibly can. Add ice. Shake vigorously to chill. Strain into a glass. Shake a few drops of bitters onto the surface. Enjoy!

💭 Tips

• Start with really fresh eggs!
• We prefer to “dry” shake our eggy cocktails. This involves shaking the heck out of all the ingredients until the mixture is frothy. Then add ice to the shaker before shaking to chill the cocktail, and strain into your glass.
• Pisco comes from Peru. ONLY PERU. If it’s from Chile, it is subpar.