Our next door neighbor here in Hawaii is a mechanical engineer who goes to Chile frequently to work on their telescopes. He brought back a bottle of pisco, which we sampled last night at his New Years Eve party. Straight up, pisco tastes like a strong, raw brandy. No one knew how to make a pisco sour, which is the preferred mixed drink.
Pisco is a distilled liquor made from grapes. Whether it originated in Spain or Peru seems up for debate. Read the Wikipedia articles on pisco & the pisco sour for an entertaining mix of truth & speculation.
My favorite bit from Wiki:
In November 17, 2009, Adal Ramones, a Mexican television show host and comedian, made a reference to the Pisco Sour when he expressed his opinion in regards to the 2009 Chile-Peru espionage scandal: "What do the Chileans want to spy from Peru? How to make a good Pisco Sour?"
