Etymology
The term Pisco Sour is made up of two word components, sour and Pisco. Sour refers to mixed drinks containing a base liquor (bourbon or whiskey), lemon or lime juice, and a sweetener. Pisco refers to the base liquor used in the cocktail. The word as applied to the alcoholic beverage comes from the Peruvian port of Pisco. In the book Latin America and the Caribbean, historian Olwyn Blouet and political geographer Brian Blouet describe the development of vineyards in early Colonial Peru and how "in the second half of the sixteenth century" a market for the liquor formed owing to the demand from growing mining settlements in the Andes. Subsequent demand for a stronger drink caused Pisco and the nearby city of Ica to establish distilleries "to make wine into brandy", and the product received the name of the port from where it was distilled and exported. This definition has been accepted by institutions such as the Real Academia Española and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.
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