[1] Pisco Portón, one of the finest pisco brands (photo © Caraved Pisco).

[2] Pisco Punch. Here’s another version of the recipe using pineapple gum syrup (photo © Liber & Co.).

Pisco is made by distilling fermented grape juice into a high-proof spirit. It was developed by 16th-century Spanish settlers as an alternative to orujo, a pomace brandy that was being imported from Spain.

For Pisco Day, here are two Pisco punch recipes that aren’t the Pisco Sour. Punches are good for a crowd, can be made a day in advance, and are easy to pour from a pitcher.

Make the punch a day in advance, you can chill it thoroughly in the fridge so less ice will be required (it dilutes the drink as it melts). The larger the cubes, the slower they melt.

> The history of Pisco.

> The history of Pisco Punch is below.
 
 
RECIPE #1: EASY PISCO PUNCH

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE the lemon peels and sugar together and let sit for at least 90 minutes. Muddle the lemon and sugar again, then stir in the lemon juice.

2. ADD the pisco and the water and stir. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

3. CUT the star fruit into ¼ to ½ inch slices right before serving. To serve, pour into a glass pitcher and float the star fruit slices. Add ice cubes as needed.
 
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*Juice the three lemons after you cut the peels.
 

RECIPE #2: PINEAPPLE PISCO PUNCH

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MIX all ingredients in a punch bowl or pitcher.

2. SERVE in rocks glasses; garnish with pineapple and strawberry squares and mint.
 
 
PISCO PUNCH HISTORY

While Pisco and the Pisco Sour are native to Peru, Pisco Punch was created in San Francisco in the late 19th century.

It’s believed that Pisco Punch was invented in a bar called the San Francisco Bank Exchange and Billiard Saloon, located where the Transamerica Pyramid is today.

Different people are credited with inventing Pisco Punch: John Torrence, one of the early owners of the bar; Duncan Nicol, the bar’s last owner; and Professor Jerry Burns, also of the Bank Exchange. (The bar opened in 1853 and closed in 1919 with the advent of Prohibition.)

Difford’s Guide credits Burns, but says the origin could lie with bartenders who made the drink aboard steamships of the late 1800s. These ships stopped in Peru en route to San Francisco.

Wherever the true origin, the San Francisco Bank Exchange’s recipe was a closely-guarded secret.

Today’s Pisco Punch is made with a combination of Pisco, pineapple gum syrup, lemon juice, and distilled water.

The recipe is based on one found among the papers of John Lannes, who took ownership of the San Francisco Bank Exchange right before it was forced to close due to Prohibition.

[4] An 1894 poster advertising Vin Mariani by Jules Chéret, a master of Belle Époque poster art who has been called the father of the modern poster (public domain image via Wikipedia).

According to Taste Atlas, there is also another ingredient that has been lost due over time, although it may have been Vin Mariani, a coca wine and patent medicine created in the 1860s by Angelo Mariani, a French chemist from the island of Corsica (image #4) [source].

It was made with Bordeaux wine. The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves. (You can still buy Vin Mariani, although today’s recipe uses decocainized coca leaves.)

Today there’s no Vin Mariani in the basic recipe, although if you want to buy a bottle you can play around with it.

When you drink a Pisco Punch, you join the ranks of Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling, who both enjoyed it at the San Francisco Bank Exchange.

In his 1889 book From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel, Kipling wrote that the drink was “compounded of the shavings of cherub wings, the glory of a tropical dawn, the red clouds of sunset and the fragments of lost epics by dead masters.”
 
 

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We were surprised not too long ago when a friend mentioned she liked figs, but had only eaten figs in their dried form. Why, we asked, since they are easily available?

“I didn’t know what to do with them,” she replied.

Today’s first tip: Never let unfamiliarity stop you from trying a new food. Buy it, bring it home, look it up.

A sweet, soft and moist tree-ripened fig is luscious, eaten plain, with cheese or yogurt, or in many recipes. Just as with, say, fresh versus dried mango, it’s a completely different experience.

And the season is now: In the U.S., figs have two seasons: a short season in early summer and a main crop that starts in late summer and runs through fall.

Fresh figs are fragile and don’t travel well: The think skins easily split and the flesh can bruise. This makes fresh figs even more of a treat, worth seeking out.

THE HISTORY OF FIGS

Man has been cultivating figs for more than 11,400 years. It is now believed to be the first food cultivated by man, in the Near East* some 11,400 years ago. This is roughly 1,000 years before the other “earliest crops,” barley, legumes and wheat were domesticated in the region. [Source]

The fig is a member of the Moraceae binomial family, sometimes called the fig family. It’s the family member that’s most familiar to us: Other members include the banyan, breadfruit, mulberry and Osage orange (which not an orange).

There are almost 200 cultivars of figs, in a wide range of shapes, colors and textures. While most of think of figs as having skins that are brown, green, red or purple, take a look at the lovely yellow Tiger Stripe Fig.

Figs are now grown in warm, dry and sunny climates in around the globe (fig trees can’t tolerate temperatures below 20°F).

The top 10 fig producing countries are, by crop size, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Iran, Syria, United States, Brazil, Albania and Tunisia.

HOW TO ENJOY FRESH FIGS

Since figs are sweet, we think of them in the context of desserts or sweet snacks. But sweetness is also an excellent counterpoint to bitter, salty and spicy/hot foods.

Eat up: Figs are among the richest plant sources of calcium and fiber. They are rich in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins B6 and K, and are a good source of flavonoids and polyphenols (antioxidants). They are sodium-free and cholesterol/fat-free.

Don’t peel the figs. Enjoy them with breakfast cereal, yogurt or cottage cheese; sliced on sandwiches with fresh or aged cheese; chopped and added to rice; stuffed with cream cheese or goat cheese as an hors d’oeuvre; or raw or grilled as a side dish, cut in half and served with grilled meat or poultry.
Figs For Breakfast

Fresh figs with a sweet mascarpone dip; figs dipped into chocolate fondue. Photo courtesy California Figs.

 
Figs In Appetizers, Hors D’oeuvre And Salads

Cocktails With Figs

 
 
Dinner Courses With Figs

Desserts With Figs

 
TOO MANY FIGS?

If you have too many ripe figs, you can place them on paper towels, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for a few days. Or, place them in a freezer bag and freeze for up to six months.

Or, purée the ripe figs and use the purée in cocktails (mixed with white spirits, for example), smoothies, or as a topper for ice cream or sorbet (add sweetener as necessary).
 
Hungry yet?

We’ve written before on summer beers, brewed to be refreshing on a hot day: lighter in body with a moderate A.B.V. (alcohol by volume).

Perhaps the most interesting of the lighter, hot weather styles is the saison (say-ZONE, meaning “season” in French).

It is alternately referred to as farmhouse ale, since it originated on farmsteads in the Wallonia region of southern Belgium, a French-speaking region that shares a border with France.

Saison was traditionally brewed by farmers at the end of winter, then set aside for the summer, where it was happily consumed by field workers. Yes, beer drinking on the job was common, because before the advent of quality-tested municipal water, it was safer than many water supplies.

But that’s not your problem: You have a good municipal water supply. Instead, think about hosting a saison tasting party.

SAISON: THE FREESTYLE ALE

Often referred to as a dry, fruity Belgian ale, the interesting thing about saison is that no two taste the same. That’s because each farmer brewed it with whatever he or she* had on hand, so there was no common recipe.

We can’t think of any other style of beer where this is true. (See our Beer Glossary for the different styles of beer.)

The colors vary (golden, amber, orange, from light to dark); the aromas vary (citrusy/fruity, spicy). Perhaps what they have in common is their refreshing nature.

Another feature we happen to love to find in saisons is a mild “barnyard” character. Famous in certain Burgundy wines, it comes from from Brettanomyces yeasts that naturally exist on the farm (and can be purchased by breweries). “Brett,” as it’s often called, contributes earthy, musty aromas and some tart flavor.
 
*As history was written by men, the role of women is often overlooked or understated. For example, farmer’s “wives” were also farmers. They may not have had the physical strength to plow the field (and certainly, some did), but they did many other essential farm tasks. And they brewed beer!

Check your local shelves for supplies of saisons. While the classic Belgian import is Saison Dupont (a fruity and spicy style), American craft brewers make hoppy, malty, spicy, fruity and floral.

So, the real Tip Of The Day: Collect as many as you can find and invite friends for a saison tasting. Do it now, or make it your end-of-the-season Labor Day celebration.
 
What To Serve With Saison

Although most of us use “beer” to refer to all suds, three parts of the brewing process actually define what is a beer—illustrated by the lager style—and what is an ale.

Ales tend to be fruity-estery in aroma and flavor, while lagers are clean-tasting and crisp. These differences are created by:

The Yeast

 
Temperature and Time

 
The Ingredients

 
Thanks to BeerTutor.com for the quick tutorial.
  

For National Tequila Day, July 24th, expand your knowledge of tequila. It’s not just a Margarita mixer, but comprises five different expressions, two of which you’d never mix! Plan a tasting party with the first four expressions—and the fifth, if you’re in the chips.

The spirit gets its name from the municipality of Tequila, in the west-central Mexican state of Jalisco (40 miles northwest of Guadalajara).

The native Aztecs fermented agave into mezcal, the forerunner of tequila; but did not know how to distill. That knowledge arrived with the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. When they ran out of the brandy they brought, they began to distill agave into what is now called tequila.

Tequila is one of five major distilled spirits that are indigenous to the Americas. Can you name the others? The answers are at the end of this article.

Tequila is made by distilling the juice from the blue agave plant, not a cactus but a large succulent closely related to lilies. The best tequila is 100% blue agave, the finest agave juice that minimizes the “burn.” But at the two entry levels, tequilas can be “mixto,” at least 51% blue agave with the remainder coming from other agave species. They must be so labeled.

Depending on the aging process and the quality of the agave, the tequila becomes one of the following five types. The more a spirit is aged, the more complex the flavors.

BLANCO TEQUILLA

Also called: White, plata/silver or platinum tequila.

Qualities: Clear and transparent. The tequila is unaged, bottled or stored immediately after distillation. It can also be briefly aged, up to two months.

Use it for: Mixed drinks.
 

JOVEN TEQUILA

Also called: Gold or young tequila.

Qualities: Pale yellow in appearance. This is un-aged tequila that is blended with rested or aged tequilas; or can be colored with caramel coloring, sugar-based syrup, glycerin, and/or oak extract to resemble aged tequila.

Use it for: Mixed drinks.
 
REPOSADO TEQUILLA

Also called: Rested tequila.

Qualities: Light yellow and translucent, the tequila is aged for at least six months but less than a year. The spirit takes on a golden hue and the flavor becomes nicely balanced between agave and wood. American or French oak barrels are most commonly used* for aging, although bourbon, cognac, whiskey or wine barrels can be used. The tequila will take on nuanced flavors from the spirit that was previously aged in the barrel. Reposado began to emerge as a new category of tequila in the late 1980s.

Use it for: Mixed drinks.
 
AÑEJO TEQUILA

Also called: Aged or vintage tequila.

Qualities:: brighter yellow, aged at least one year, but less than three years. The tequila is aged in smaller barrels where the flavor can become smoother, richer and more complex. The aging process darkens the tequila to an amber color.

Use it for: sipping.

EXTRA AÑEJO TEQUILA

Also called: Extra aged or ultra aged tequila.

Qualities: Golden color, aged at least three years in oak. This is a new classification which received official classification in 2006. It is the most expensive tequila, made from the finest agave for true connoisseurs.

Use it for: sipping.

HOW TO DRINK TEQUILA

In Mexico, the most traditional way to drink tequila is neat, without lime and salt, or as a sangrita. Outside of Mexico, a shot of tequila is often served with salt and a slice of lime. This is called tequila cruda.
 
The Sangrita

In some regions of Mexico it is popular to drink a shot of fine tequila with a side of sangrita, a sweet, sour, and spicy drink usually made from orange juice, grenadine or tomato juice, and hot chiles. Equal shots of tequila and sangrita are sipped alternately, without salt or lime.

Another popular drink in Mexico is the bandera (flag, in Spanish), named after the Flag of Mexico, it consists of three shot glasses, filled with lime juice (for the green), white tequila, and sangrita (for the red).

When served neat (without any additional ingredients), tequila is most often served in a narrow shot glass called a caballito (little horse, in Spanish), but can be served in anything from a snifter to a tumbler.

In 2002, the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (regulating council) approved a stemmed “official tequila glass” shape made by the great glassmaker, Riedel. It’s called the Ouverture Tequila glass and, like all Riedel glassware, is engineered to enable the finest aromas and flavors from the spirit.
 
TEQUILA TRIVIA: THERE ARE NEVER WORMS IN THE BOTTLES

Many people believe that some tequilas have a worm in the bottle. They don’t; but certain brands of mezcal do contain a worm, the larval form of the moth Hypopta agavis, which lives on the agave plant.

The larvae are used by several brands of mezcal to give flavor to the spirit. As a marketing gimmick that began in the 1940s, some brands put a worm in the bottle. Any flavor from the worm has long been removed during production.

According to the website Mezcal-de-Oaxaca.com, in 2005 the Mexican government legislated to remove the worm from mezcal (it was already prohibited in tequila). One reason is that at 20¢ to 40¢ per worm and between 200-500 worms per plant, irresponsible harvesters actually uproot and destroy an agave plant to harvest the worms.

Tequila should not contain an insect of any kind, and if it does, then “you’ve either purchased gag-inducing hooch aimed at gullible gringos, or your top-shelf booze is infested by some kind of alcohol-breathing, alien bug,” according to author James Waller (Drinkology: The Art and Science of the Cocktail, page 224, published 2003).
 
THE OTHER MAJOR AMERICAN SPIRITS

Also indigenous to the Americas: Bourbon (USA), cachaça (Brazil), mezcal (Mexico), pisco (Peru) and rum (Caribbean).

Numerous other spirits are distilled locally throughout the Americas, but are not distributed far beyond their place of origin.
 
*After fine wine is aged in [expensive] new oak barrels, the used barrels are often sold to the producers of spirits for aging. New oak imparts specific flavors to wine; but with spirits, the distiller is not looking for prominent oak flavor. Thus, the same used barrel can be used for several years, where it imparts slight nuances.

[1] Pineapple gazpacho, spicy and refreshing (photo courtesy Urban Accents).

[2] A fresh pineapple makes this summer soup taste terrific (photo courtesy Whole Foods Markets).

Today, The pineapple is marinated in spices and lime juice, then grilled to provide this chilled soup with a more complex flavor.

The recipe is by Jim Dygas, president of Urban Accents, using Urban Accents’ Mozambique Peri Peri spice blend. The garnish was added by THE NIBBLE.

Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 15 minutes. The gazpacho needs to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours or overnight. The flavor will be better the next day.

RECIPE: PINEAPPLE GAZPACHO

Ingredients For 6 Servings

 
For The Garnish

1. PREHEAT the grill to med-high heat.

2. COMBINE the lime juice and zest with Mozambique Peri Peri in a large bowl. Add the pineapple, stir, and marinate for 15 minutes.

3. GRILL the pineapple on all sides to get light grill marks. Remove from the grill, let cool slightly and cut into small chunks.

4. PURÉE 1 cup of the pineapple chunks in a blender or food processor, along with the pineapple juice and olive oil until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl, add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve. While the soup chills…

5. MAKE the garnish. Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to serve.

 
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*Urban Accents’ Mozambique Peri Peri has a base of crushed chile peppers and paprika combined with six herbs and spices plus citrus. You can make a less complex seasoning blend by combining crushed chile flakes and paprika with dried herbs of choice.
 
 

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