What’s a chilcano? It’s a Peruvian drink generally made with Pisco (strong booze that wipes the floor with tequila in terms of a hangover), lemon, and ginger ale or sometimes cola or soda, and most places throw in bitters (Note: Peru makes different bitters that we don’t get in Canada, so the flavour is slightly different. You can find them at the grocery stores here. As far as I know the house-made bitters trend hasn’t caught on here yet like it has in North America, but I could be wrong).
And why does Peru have a week to celebrate them?
My guess is because they’ve been drinking Pisco sours for so long that they needed another national drink with their booze of choice.
And why Pisco?
Because imported alcohol is so ridiculously expensive here that the only choices worth considering unless you’re a big spender are Pisco and beer (and only local versions of the latter are affordable).
After drinking approximately 8 chilcanos over the course of trip to Peru so far I’m pretty sure there are a few tricks to making a good one. You can use any fruit, but you need to balance the sweet and sour elements, and you have to not dilute it with too much sparkling water (in the mojito style variations – traditional Chilcanos don’t usually have sparkling water). Limenos really like sweet, so you may have to have one Chilcano at a place and then ask the bartender on your next round to adjust the sweetness. Most bartenders usually like that you’re actually paying attention to the flavour of their cocktail instead of just drinking for the sake of drinking.
After my bar crawl a couple weeks ago, I swore off Pisco. But if it’s Chilcano week I’m going to try some Chilcano for the sake of knowledge. So I hit the Lobby Bar of the Swissotel, and worked through the seasonal Chilcano menu.
But go drink a Chiclano today, because it’s the last day of the week of Chilcanos!! It’s also Lima’s birthday, so you have lots of reasons to try one, or 3. I do not recommend going above 3. At the Lobby Bar at the Swissotel I tried:
Basil Chilcano and traditional lime Chilcano
The basil was very gently muddled but I preferred the traditional lime version (I’m not a mojito fan, which is what the basil reminded me of) because it had more sharp punch to it from the acidic lime.
My favourite was the strawberry Chilcano because the Swissotel used Angostura bitters and the flavour really pumped up the strawberry flavour and added a little bit of complexity that was lost in the lime version. Yes it’s girly and sweet, but the crushed strawberries were phenomenal. And really it was still refreshing because of the soda.
The strawberry is on the right. The one on the left is a passionfruit Chilcano. It has a lot more acid from the fruit. If you’re into apricots with a little bit of lemon, you’ll like that one.
I also love mangoes. As in, I’m addicted to mangoes and could live on mangoes, but I’d prefer a strawberry Chilcano here. Still, it’s plenty sweet. You’d want to choose this one if you want a slightly thicker, creamier Chilcano.
Mango Chilcano
Mmm…
According to the Swissotel website: Chilcanos are the next most requested mixed drink at bars in Peru. “Its flavor is very similar to “gin gin”. It’s believed it was adapted from Italian immigrants who made a preparation with grappa (brandy Italian), Canada Dry (or ginger ale) and a slice of lemon.”
Here’s a recipe from Swissotel so you can make your own.
Classic Chilcano
Ingredients:
4 ounces of pisco
Juice of half a lemon
6 drops of Angostura bitters
1/2 ounce of simple syrup (take an ounce of sugar and dissolve it in an ounce of water. Let cool)
6-7 ice cubes
ginger ale
slice of lemon
Preparation
In a tall glass put the ice, a slice of lemon, pisco and bitters and fill the glass adding ginger ale.
Mix and add a squeeze of lemon juice and the syrup to taste.
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