Pisco Punch
Photo: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores · CC BY-SA 2.0

History

Pisco Punch was made famous at the Bank Exchange Saloon at Montgomery and Washington from the 1860s through Prohibition, under bartender Duncan Nicol who closed the recipe to the grave. Rudyard Kipling drank it in 1889 and wrote it tasted of clouds. Modern bars reconstructed the formula using period accounts; Comstock Saloon in North Beach pours the canonical contemporary version, and most San Francisco classic-cocktail bars now feature it.

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Make it at home

Yield 1Hands-on 5 minTotal 24 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 60ml Peruvian pisco (a Quebranta single-varietal works)
  • 20ml fresh lemon juice
  • 25ml pineapple gum syrup (recipe below)
  • 20ml cold water
  • For the pineapple gum syrup: 1 small ripe pineapple peeled and diced
  • 400g caster sugar
  • 200ml water
  • 1 teaspoon gum arabic dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm water
  • Pineapple wedge, to garnish

Method

  1. Make the syrup at least a day ahead: simmer the diced pineapple with sugar and water 15 minutes until the fruit is translucent.
  2. Steep covered overnight at room temperature.
  3. Strain through a fine sieve into a bottle. Stir in the dissolved gum arabic; this gives the syrup its viscous mouth-feel.
  4. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks.
  5. To build the cocktail: add pisco, lemon juice, pineapple gum syrup and cold water to a mixing tin filled with ice.
  6. Stir 20 seconds (do not shake; classic Pisco Punch is stirred and crystal clear).
  7. Strain into a chilled small wine glass or a small tumbler with no ice.
  8. Garnish with a small wedge of pineapple.

Tip from the editors. Stir, never shake. The original was prized for its clarity and lightly viscous body from the gum arabic; a hard shake aerates the drink into something else entirely.

Where to eat pisco punch

Pisco Punch in San Francisco

Comstock Saloon ★ 4.3

$$$ Cocktail barHistoric saloon

Comstock Saloon in San Francisco is the North Beach saloon reopened to a 19th-century template, with the Pisco Punch made to the long-lost Bank Exchange.

DrinkPisco Punch

FoodBar snacks, full dinner menu

TipOrder the Pisco Punch and a plate of Welsh rarebit at the bar; the back dining room takes reservations.

Directions Book

Bourbon & Branch ★ 4.3

$$$ Cocktail barSpeakeasy cocktail bar

Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco is the Tenderloin Prohibition-style speakeasy, with a password door, a 200-page bourbon menu and a Sazerac.

DrinkSazerac

FoodNone

TipReserve a slot and ask for the password by email; the walk-in bar in the back room is easier than the front.

Directions Book

Pacific Cocktail Haven ★ 4.5

$$$ Cocktail barCocktail bar

Pacific Cocktail Haven (PCH) in San Francisco is Kevin Diedrich's Union Square cocktail room, with a Southeast Asian flavour palette and a kaffir lime gimlet.

DrinkKaffir lime gimlet

FoodSnack menu

TipSit at the bar for Kevin's spec sheets; the room takes walk-ins after 22:00 reliably.

Directions Book

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