Once a year we celebrate the favorite feast of Pisco lovers, whether Peruvians or foreigners. Through out Peru people have fun and enjoy themselves. They get to know more about pisco and simply enjoy the week of our famous drink, the chilcano. It makes your body feel alive and part of something important since it is celebrated throughout Peru.
In Cusco, the fans of good, Peruvian pisco have been celebrating since yesterday. It is Chilcano Week, La Semana del Chilcano. The majority of the bars and restaurants located on Tecsecocha, Plateros, Procuradores, and Triunfo streets offer the chilcano of pisco. From their doors where you see colorful boards announcing their specials to their insides where you can find the perfect place to drink and enjoy a good chilcano or other beverage, as well as music. The celebration is contagious in all of these establishments.
Barkers outside the restaurants, discotheques, and bars entice locals and visitors to enter their places of work. Along the main square, our Plaza de Armas, you will find them handing out fliers offering chilcanos two for one to the general public. If there is a drink you should try in this feast it is the chilcano. It is prepared with all the varieties of Peruvian pisco. Of course, each has its own flavor. Chilcano is a drink that makes good pisco stand out.
Since 2010 we have celebrated this week during the second week of January. This year, however, it is being honored during the third week, from the 13th to the 24th of January.
This celebration has the purpose of promoting Peruvian pisco and the 8 different grapes from which it is made. There is the moscatel, the albilla, torontel, italia, quebranta, negra criolla, molar, and uvina. The celebration also invites people to get to know the regions that produce our pisco, Lima, Moquegua, Arequipa, Ica, and Tacna.
In the city of Cusco as well as in Lima and other Peruvian cities Chilcano Week is being celebrated. The Marriott Hotel is offering specials on chilcanos in the hope that guests will have the pleasure of trying one and learning from their skilled bartenders.
Recipe: Chilcano is prepared in many homes using pisco acholado. It is recommended you serve it in large glasses. A chilcano requires 2 ounces of pisco, ice, two drops of limejuice (limón), and one and a half splashes of ginger ale Britvic (a soft drink with ginger extract). Some people prefer to use Canada Dry or similar sodas. This is one of the ways chilcano is prepared in our homes.
In our bars, the bartenders wear their best uniforms to celebrate with clients our Chilcano Week. During the week the most spoken theme is the pisco with which a good chilcano is made. The week has just begun and people are excited. You too can enjoy making and drinking a chilcano made with Peruvian pisco. It leaves a softly dense scent in your mouth.
