On weekend nights, limeños (residents of Peru’s capital) meet up with family and friends at Lima’s native tabernas for the social ritual of dialog over pisco and piqueos—small bites of comida criolla, comparable to anticuchos, papa rellena, lomo saltado, causa, escabeche de pescado or sanguches, which have cemented Peru as one of many world’s main culinary locations over the previous decade. And whereas citrusy and frothy Pisco Sours or refreshing Chilcanos reign throughout heat summer time evenings, winter within the coastal metropolis requires a stiffer drink, one which’s seemingly been round longer than both: Capitán.
For greater than 150 years—after mid-Nineteenth-century Italian immigrants introduced Cinzano Rosso to Lima—limeños have sipped the mixture of pisco and vermouth; it’s advanced into what’s recognized right now as a Capitán, a easy combination of the 2 components in various ratios and kinds relying on the preferences of the individual making it. Within the 1903 cookbook Nuevo Guide de Cocina a la Criolla, a cocktail recipe titled “different” suggests an early model:
“Half copa [a small measure] of any sturdy spirit and one other half of Italian vermouth is one other fulfilling cocktail while not having to shake it.”
Italian pulperías (small grocers) served equal elements pisco and Cinzano Rosso at room-temperature in a shot glass. Nonetheless, with the arrival of World Battle I, native lower-end vermouths changed the scarce Italian import, and any aguardiente stood in for pisco. So the demoted drink glided by the title 20 Centavos, after the lowest-denomination coin.
However the story goes that in Puno, 500 miles southeast of Lima at 12,000 ft elevation, taberneros poured aguardiente and vermouth for army cavalry captains to fight the sierra area’s chilly. “Para mi capitán,” for my captain, they stated, reverently. The distinguished title migrated to Lima and by the Nineteen Twenties the registry at Morris Bar, the place Victor Morris served Lima’s elite, mentions the cocktail by its new rank—Capitán.
In its purest type, the drink has solely two components. But the straightforward template yields complicated outcomes by modifying the ratio, pisco grape selection or model of vermouth. And incorporating bitters or olives takes the combination to the realm of the Manhattan or Martini. All through Lima, Capitán variations are as numerous because the bars that serve them.
At Central, the Lima restaurant that earned the No. 1 spot within the 2023 World’s 50 Greatest Eating places, head bartender David Ramírez prepares his Capitán with Manhattan ratios, utilizing the traditional refrescado technique: two elements pisco, one half vermouth, plus a splash of Angostura, all stirred in a mixing glass with ice, strained into a relaxing coupe, and garnished with inexperienced olives. “I want quebranta pisco, and for vermouth I actually like Cocchi di Torino,” he says. The quebranta grape is the most well-liked of the eight pisco varieties; its style is paying homage to apples, nuts and dried fruit. “The citrus and cocoa botanicals within the vermouth properly stability the quebranta grape,” provides Ramírez.
For company bartender Enrique Hermoza and his workforce on the Museo del Pisco branches in Lima, Cusco and Arequipa, placing the Capitán on their cocktail menu was an opportunity to take the drink in a number of totally different inventive instructions.
The Sucio, which interprets to “soiled,” is a playful nod to the soiled Martini and mixes an uvina pisco, recognized for its nuanced inexperienced olive aroma, with bianco and dry vermouths, plus a splash of olive brine. “The purpose was to develop a white Capitán with the style of olives however all the time sustaining the traditional Capitán profile,” explains Hermoza. “We pair the cocktail with a aspect of inexperienced olives, to play between consuming and consuming,” he provides. His workforce’s Yuyito, which interprets to “little yuyo seaweed,” in the meantime, pays homage to Lima’s coast and its maritime bounty. Along with pisco and a pink vermouth mix, saline answer drops, aji panca bitters, and a dehydrated yuyo garnish spherical out the drink. “The style reminds one of many sea,” provides Hermoza.
Maybe nowhere in Lima is the Capitán extra revered than at Bar Capitán Meléndez, the pisco temple with an intensive menu itemizing an array of neat, shaken and stirred drinks. There, founder and head bartender Roberto Meléndez is a Capitán purist. “The traditional recipe is one measure of vermouth Cinzano Rosso, one measure of pisco puro quebranta, refrescado for a couple of seconds, and garnished with inexperienced unpitted olives,” he explains. Meléndez serves it in a relaxing glass formed just like the ceremonial Incan kero cup for consuming chicha (an ancestral fermented corn beverage), which elevates the ritual of consuming the Capitán at his bar. “The olive is essential within the cocktail; biting it invitations a brand new sip,” provides Meléndez.
Certainly, in a single story from the 1872 Tradiciones Peruanas, a group of writings about creole life in colonial-era Lima when limeños sipped pisco neat, Peruvian author Ricardo Palma describes the olive’s function as an inseparable accomplice to a cup of pisco: “la aceituna inseparable compañera de la copa de aguardiente.” And limeños had a time period for consuming pisco: “remojar una aceitunita,” to soak a small olive. All that was lacking from that custom was vermouth that might flip the copa of pisco right into a Capitán.
In the present day, nostalgia runs deep in Lima’s veins—from its comida criolla to vals criollo to the literature of Mario Vargas Llosa and poems of César Vallejo that proceed to affect up to date tradition. The Capitán isn’t any exception. As with all enduring legacy, the aperitivo continues to evolve, and every model is a chance to make one thing previous, new once more.
