Taste the Pisco Rainbow

DIY pisco infusions

Our growing collection of pisco macerados: cranberry, aguaymanto, apple and cinnamon, and coca leaf

Our favorite way to enjoy pisco is with a macerado, an infusion made by steeping fruit, spices, or herbs in pisco for an extended amount of time. Cocktail bars in Peru serve pisco, a type of brandy with aromatic and fruity notes, in a variety of ways. Two of the classic pisco cocktails, Pisco Sours and Chilcanos, are classically made with limes. However, they also come in a variety of flavors thanks to macerados.

Macerados represent a simple way to concentrate the flavor of an ingredient to make a cocktail. Most macerados only have two ingredients: a herb or fruit plus pisco. However, that list leaves out a critical third ingredient—time. Given the chance, the aromatic nature of pisco adds a new dimension to the infusion, making it more interesting than say, a flavored simple syrup.

A shelf full of macerados at La Calesa in San Isidro, Lima (they still offer a large selection of macerados)

Just a few years ago, the shelves of almost every cocktail bar in Peru would be home to large jugs of macerados with a range of flavors including passionfruit, ginger, chicha morada, and aguaymanto. In bars in the Amazon, the menu of flavors includes exotic herbs that are said to have “special” properties. Top-shelf options in jungle bars include macerados infused with scorpions and snakes. I’m personally happy with sticking with passionfruit and the occasional chili pepper macerado …

Sadly, the popularity of macerados seems to have faded a bit. Just two years ago, most cocktail bars served half a dozen or more pisco infusions. Now, many bars only offer pisco sour and chilcano clasicó and if they do have macerados, they’ll only have a couple of options (usually passionfruit or aguaymanto). Luckily, it’s easy to make macerados at home.

First Stop-the Market

Typical market stall with a variety of dried fruits to choose from/

In Peru, you have an almost infinite variety of macerados that you can make with the local fruits, herbs, and peppers. The best place to get started is the market nearest you.

Every market has at least one stall with a variety of dried fruit and nuts. You can buy a variety of fruit by weight which makes it perfect for making macerados. Some macerados like aguaymanto work better with fresh fruit which is also plentiful in markets.

Common dried fruits available include apples, grapefruit, cranberries, kiwi, mango, and orange. You can also buy coca leaves which is one of my favorite flavors to infuse with.

A Simple Alchemy

This small plate of ingredients was enough to make four bottles of macerados

For this batch, we decided to make four infusions: cranberries, aguaymanto, apple cinnamon, and coca which made it a good mix of old and new flavors for us.

We make our macerados with quebranta pisco, named after the type of grapes used to produce it. Quebranta goes well with fruit because it is not too intense and doesn’t clash with other flavors. We found Aguaje to be a good brand of Pisco to use for macerado. It’s high quality, widely available, and not too expensive. We like to use the same brand and varietal for the macerado since you end up combining pisco during the process.

Macerados are simple to make a home. Just add your ingredient of choice to a bottle of pisco and check back in three or four weeks.

The process is straightforward. You need to pour about one-fourth of each bottle into an empty bottle to make room for the featured ingredient. If you’re using the same brand, you can combine the pisco. Keep in mind that some flavors like aguaymanto which uses whole fruit take more room than others like coca leaves. The recipe, if you can call it that, is quite forgiving.

Next, seal the bottle tightly and turn the bottle upside down so that the ingredients move to the other side of the bottle. Repeat a few times to distribute the flavor. It’s not a margarita; you don’t need to shake the bottle vigorously.

Now, comes the hard part. You’ll have to be patient and leave things alone for three weeks or more for the macerado to develop flavor. The macerado has a long shelf life (years), but it’s best not to expose the macerado to too much air during the infusion process. Yes, you can sneak a taste if you want.

After just two weeks, the macerados gain a lot of color.

Your Macerado Flavor Guide

Here are some common macerado flavors:

• Hierba Luisa (lemongrass) is different than the lemongrass used in Southeast Asian cooking but has a similar but milder aromatic lemon flavor.

• Naranja (orange) using dried oranges is a simple, comfortable flavor choice.

• Chicha morada is the classic purple corn punch Peruvians enjoy with meals. For this flavor, you make a little chicha morada, let it cool, and then add it to pisco.

• Aguaymanto (groundcherry) has a bright, sour flavor. You can use dried aguaymanto but we prefer using fresh ones. Pick the smaller ones so that it’s easier to push through the neck of the bottle.

• Coca leaves give the macerado an interesting, earthy flavor. Be a little careful with this one; coca with alcohol can be quite potent.

• Charapita gives the macerado a nice kick along with providing it with a citrus flavor. You can add any ají but charapita is easier because they are tiny and you don’t need to worry about chopping or seeding the pepper.

If you haven’t had these flavors before, consider trying it at a bar first or scaling down the recipes and using smaller bottles.

Now, for the Cocktail …

You can drink the macerado neat but they tend to be a little intense. To make a chilcano, just add ginger ale and ice to your macerado and then top it with a squeeze of lime. I usually just add a shot and a half of macerado and fill the glass with ginger ale and ice. Most recipes have 2 oz of Pisco to 4 oz of ginger ale so if you want to measure everything start there and adjust to taste.

Once you make a macerado or two, you’ll always be just one step from a refreshing pisco cocktail …