A spirited bar promo wants San Antonio to put down the tequila shots and pick up another Latin American spirit. Seven San Antonio bars and restaurants will be mixing up Peru’s national liquor as part of Pisco Punch Week, August 21-28.
Sponsored by BarSol Pisco, the weeklong event asks local businesses to mix up their own version of pisco punch. In return, the company will donate to a local hospitality-focused nonprofit, although it does not specify which one.
Participants include:
Bar 1919Bar LorettaHotel EmmaLeche de TigreMixtliPasticheThree Star Bar
Though the base spirit is from Peru, the cocktail originally hails from late 19th-century San Francisco. The liquor itself had been in San Francisco since the 1700s, brought by traders to what was then Mexico.
But when Bank Exchange Saloon bartender Duncan Nicol mixed it with pineapple gum syrup and lemon juice, the drink became a status symbol. Priced around $2 a pop (or $25 in today’s dollars), the drink was made mythological in Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 travelogue “From Sea to Sea.”
After Prohibition, the cocktail was lost for decades until historian Guillermo Toro-Lira brought it back in 2006 — the height of the American craft cocktail revival. Although the original recipe has been recovered, Pisco Punch Week participants have free rein to substitute different sweeteners and go wild with fruit.
“Pisco Punch is an important part of both cocktail history and the story of Peruvian Pisco in the United States,” says Diego Loret de Mola, owner of BarSol Pisco, in a release. “By partnering with bars across these markets, we hope to introduce more people to the versatility of Pisco while celebrating the cocktail that first helped make the spirit famous in America.”
San Antonio is no stranger to weeks celebrating classic cocktails. Each year, local bars break out the gin and Campari for the yearly Negroni Week. Local distiller Dorćol Distilling + Brewing Co. is expected to celebrate its 10th Brandy Alexander Tour in December.
Dining and Cooking