Pisco Sour

Combine the pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg white in a cocktail shaker with no ice. This is the 'dry shake' — shaking without ice to build a preliminary foam from the egg white protein before dilution with ice. Shake as hard and as long as you can for 30–45 seconds. The shaker will feel almost impossible to open from the vacuum. The egg white requires the heat and full force of this dry shake to denature and foam — a half-hearted shake produces a thin, watery foam cap that collapses in seconds.

Add a generous scoop of ice cubes to the shaker containing the dry-shaken base. Shake vigorously again for 15–20 seconds. This second shake chills, dilutes, and further aerates the cocktail. The colder temperature helps set the foam into a more stable structure. The shaker will frost over on the outside — this is your cue that the drink is cold enough.

Double-strain the cocktail through a Hawthorne strainer and a fine-mesh sieve into a chilled coupe glass — the fine strainer catches ice shards that would crater the foam. Pour from a low height so the foam lands cleanly on top rather than splashing against the sides. The foam should dome slightly above the rim of the glass. Immediately add three drops of Angostura bitters to the center of the foam. Use a cocktail pick or toothpick to drag the drops through the foam in a spiral or line — the bitters bloom in the white foam like ink in water, creating the classic pisco sour pattern.