Mellowed-out pisco El Capitan
In Peru, there’s more to cocktails than the beloved pisco sour — the tart drink with the frothy top that has become popular in bars across the U.S. in recent years.
So when ThinkFoodGroup cocktail innovator Juan Coronado was researching drinks for China Chilcano in Washington, he took inspiration from another of the South American country’s popular drinks: El Capitan, which he calls “the Peruvian response to the Manhattan.”
Like the sour, El Capitan is based on pisco, the colorless but potent grape brandy.
But in developing something more elegant, Coronado wanted to soften pisco’s formidable edges while also finding another source for the sweetness that typically comes from red vermouth and a cherry garnish. He Prep: 5 minutes Macerate: 5 to 15 days Makes: 1 serving
1 bottle (750 milliliters) pisco 1 ⁄ cups dried sour cherries 1 ounce dry white vermouth 2 dashes Angostura bitters (or Amargo Chuncho bitters) Lemon peel To infuse the pisco: Pour the pisco into a large, sealable glass container. Add the dried cherries. Cover and store in a cool, dark place. Macerate for at least 5 days and up to 15, stirring daily. Strain and discard the cherries; use a funnel to return the liquid to the pisco bottle for storing. (It will keep at room temperature for up to a year.) To make one Capitan cocktail, combine 1 ⁄ ounces of the cherry-infused pisco, the vermouth and bitters in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir a few times, until the cocktail is well-chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail (martini) glass, garnish with a strip of lemon peel and serve cold. decided to infuse the pisco with dried sour cherries (guindas) for a week or two, mellowing it and lending a deep red color.
With dry white vermouth and a few dashes of bitters, “the combination is killer,” he says. China Chilcano uses Peru’s Amargo Chuncho bitters, available online, but Angostura make a reasonable and widely available substitute.
This summer, El Capitan will evolve again, Coronado says: “I can’t wait to make it with apricots.”