Peruvian Pisco Sour with Egg White, Fresh Lime Juice, Angostura Bitters and Frothy Foam

Chill your coupe glass: fill it with ice water and set aside while you build the drink. A warm glass deflates the foam immediately.

Ingredients

• 2 oz pisco (Peruvian pisco — Quebranta, Acholado, or Italia grape varieties)
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice (never bottled — the fresh acid is essential to the foam structure)
• 3/4 oz simple syrup (1:1 sugar and water)
• 1 large egg white (30ml — about 1 oz)
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters (for garnish only — applied after pouring)
• Ice (for dry shake and wet shake)
• Optional: a pinch of salt to activate the egg white proteins

Instructions

1. Chill your coupe glass: fill it with ice water and set aside while you build the drink. A warm glass deflates the foam immediately.
2. Combine in a cocktail shaker: pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg white. Do NOT add ice yet — this is the dry shake.
3. Dry shake (no ice): seal the shaker tightly and shake vigorously for 30 full seconds. This is hard work — the point is to aerate and emulsify the egg white proteins before dilution. You will hear the shaker change from a wet slap to a more airy sound as the foam builds. Your arm will be tired. That is correct.
4. Add ice: open the shaker, add a generous scoop of ice cubes, seal again.
5. Wet shake: shake hard for another 15 seconds with ice. This chills and dilutes the drink to the correct serving temperature. Double-straining is essential — strain through the cocktail strainer AND through a fine mesh tea strainer into the chilled coupe to remove ice shards that would damage the foam.
6. Pour: discard the ice water from your coupe and strain the cocktail in. Pour slowly from a low height to preserve the foam architecture. The foam should rise above the rim slightly — dense, white, and holding its structure.
7. Garnish with bitters: using a bar dropper or careful dashes, place 3 drops of Angostura bitters in a tight triangle or line on the foam surface. Use a toothpick to draw through each drop, creating a feathered pattern. In Lima, this garnish is not decorative — it is considered integral to the flavor balance.
8. Drink within 3 minutes before the foam separates. The pisco sour is the national drink of Peru and represents the refined side of Andean hospitality — the drink served at state dinners, quinceañeras, and on the rooftop bars of Miraflores with the Pacific Ocean below.