How to Make a Fruity, Juicy Pisco Sour Cocktail

Here’s something that should be too obvious to say aloud: If you were to add a strawberry to a Daiquiri, it would become a Strawberry Daiquiri. 

This is not the kind of insight for which you need a professional bartender, but bear with me. A Margarita with a strawberry is a Strawberry Margarita. A Gimlet with a strawberry is a Strawberry Gimlet. But—germane to our discussion this week—a Pisco Sour with a strawberry is called a Gabriella. 

Why? What makes the Gabriella so special?

There’s a few answers to this question—its sheer deliciousness, for one, to say nothing of the good fortune of appearing in a famous cocktail book—but more important than those, I believe, is that the Gabriella synergizes into something new. Most of those other combinations taste like the two flavors sandwiched together (with greater or lesser degrees of success), while the Gabriella tastes like a strawberry and a Pisco Sour fell in love, got married and had a child, and that child grew up to be a successful and fully actualized adult.

The Gabriella comes to us from the John Dory Oyster Bar, which opened in the Ace Hotel in New York in 2010. The bar was under the guidance of Sasha Petraske (of Milk & Honey fame) and so the cocktails could be relied upon to be exacting, disarmingly simple, and fastidiously precise. The Gabriella in particular was created by Ben Long somewhere around 2011 for the bar’s spring/summer menu, and features the combination of Peruvian pisco, lemon, strawberries, sugar, and salt, on crushed ice.

For those who are intimately familiar with the Pisco Sour, the list of ingredients may raise an eyebrow. Lemon instead of lime? Crushed ice? Salt? Yes, yes, and yes. I’ve toggled every variable in this drink—made it every which way, up and down, lemon and lime, etc etc etc—and while I’ll say there is no version of it that doesn’t make something delicious, it is only through these specific subtle choices that it becomes a Gabriella—juicy, fruity, and irrepressibly refreshing. Lemon, because the lemon hits in the mid-palate as opposed to lime’s front and back; crushed ice, to put space between all the flavors, into which the strawberry floods and then reseals the cracks behind it; salt, for its ineffable but necessary seasoning. It was named for the Peruvian competitor in the inaugural Miss Universe Competition in 1952, Ada Gabriela Bueno Böttger, and that fits—the cocktail is, beyond being Peruvian, floral, feminine, and beautiful.

Often in this space I’ll praise a cocktail for being “dynamic,” by which I mean, having distinct highs and lows, with different flavors rising and falling in the beginning, middle, and end. But sometimes it’s not that so much as it’s just a vibe, a chord of flavor hit so resonantly and so well that you need to put the drink down for a moment to fully register the experience—one that’s equal parts novel and profoundly tasty—before picking it back up to go in again.

Gabriella

Take one half of the strawberry and muddle it in the bottom of a shaker tin. Add the liquids and some ice, and shake for 8-10 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass and add crushed ice. Garnish with the other half of the strawberry and a heavy pinch of salt on top.

NOTES ON INGREDIENTS:

Pisco: The choice is always to go Peruvian or Chilean, and while there are good brands from Chile, if I’m giving general advice it’s always to buy from Peru. Peruvian Pisco has more rules for production and is therefore more reliably excellent.

Pisco comes with grape designations as well—an “Acholado” is a blend that will almost by definition be pretty well rounded. Quebranta works well as well. If I were generalizing, I’d stay away from the Moscat family like Italia or Muscatel; they can be great but their intense florality can be hard to tame.

And as far as brands are concerned, I’ve worked with and enjoyed Capurro, Caravedo, Bar Sol, Encanto, and Macchu Pisco. Any one of those will be high quality.

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Simple: Equal parts sugar and water, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Using hot water will be faster, but room-temp water will dissolve within 3 minutes or so.

Lemon: Long’s official recipe designates a “scant” 0.75 oz. of lemon, which is to say, about 0.65 or 0.7 oz. or so. I actually didn’t find a full 0.75 oz. too tart, but I feel like that’s such a small measurement, it might be because of individual fruit or palate variations. So if it’s a touch too tart or restrained for you, reduce the lemon a hair and see.

Strawberry: This is not much strawberry! The subtle touch is absolutely necessary. For our Strawberry Daiquiri recommended 3-4 large strawberries, this is a small fraction of that. Remember: This is not a Strawberry Pisco Sour, it’s a Gabriella—the strawberry should be gentle, delicate. An accent mark.

Salt: Salt goes on top. I understand the instinct to add salt to the liquid itself and shake with it, but too much salt shuts down the flavor as opposed to enhancing it. It should be on top, and you get a little with each sip.