What drinks you have to order in Peru?

Traveling through Peru is to enjoy exotic and unknown flavors, most of them reflected in their already famous dishes but also in their drinks, where pisco is the real protagonist (although not the only one).

If you are going to visit our country, always accompany your meals and your nights out with the best of our drinks (alcoholic or not), you will discover flavors that you did not know!

Pisco Sour

We start with the star cocktail of our country: the pisco sour. Pisco is a Peruvian grape distillate and it is the basis of Peru’s best-known alcoholic beverages.

Thus, pisco sour is made with pisco, lemon juice, egg white, angostura bitters (a kind of lemon juice concentrated) and gum syrup (sugar). In addition, there are many versions made with different typical fruits: mango, passion fruit, aguaymanto…

What results from this mixture of such unusual ingredients? A delicious drink with an explosion of flavors!

Of course, even if it looks like a sweet cocktail, you have to keep in mind that pisco has around 40º of alcohol, so be careful! With a single pisco sour you will already notice the effects.

Chicha Morada

The chicha morada is one of the drinks with more history of Peru since its consumption goes back to the prehispanic cultures. It is a non-alcoholic drink made from purple corn, originally from the Andes, which is cooked together with apple and pineapple peels and cinnamon and cloves. At present, chicha morada is consumed all around the country and it is the perfect companion for any dish.

Chilcano

The chilcano is another of the classic cocktails made with our famous pisco. Much simpler in its preparation than the pisco sour but equally tasty and refreshing. Its components are pisco, lemon juice, angostura bitters, sugar and ginger ale.

As occurs with the pisco sour, when you ask for a chilcano, ask the waiter what options they have, since most places offer different flavors. You want to try all! But, remember, the alcohol content of these cocktails is quite high.

Chicha de jora

In Peru there are more than 50 varieties of corn, so it is not uncommon that this product has been used since pre-Hispanic times to make various beverages. The Incas invented the the chicha de jora, made with corn of jora and sweetened with sugar or panela, a beverage that is consumed until today.

To make this cocktail, you have to boil the corn of jora for about four hours and then let it ferment for several days. The more days you let it fermenting, the higher its alcohol level will be, so if you want to venture out to try one with more alcohol, ask for the one that has been fermenting the longest.

Although they share the same name, as you will have seen, chicha morada and chicha de jora have a great difference: the last one does contain alcohol, and in a high percentage! So remember not to get confused when you order it!

Cachina

In the department of Ica, located south of Lima, are the grape vines where the most of the pisco of our country is produced. But here also other drinks are made, such as cachina, a drink with a much lower grade of alcohol than pisco, which is made from grapes with short fermentation.

Do you like alcoholic beverages made from grapes? Then we recommend you to do a tour of the wineries and vineyards of Ica, where you can taste the various products that are made here.

Jungle drinks

Among all the alcoholic beverages in Peru, you have to make a special appointment to the drinks of the jungle. In this region of our country you will find plenty of cocktails made with ingredients from the area, with high alcohol content and that have names as exotic and striking as underpants breaker, seven roots or get up Lazaro.

According to experts, these cocktails serve not only to refresh themselves from the intense heat of the jungle but also as an aphrodisiac drink, making irresistible and increasing the sexual potency of those who drink them. Do you dare with one of them?

If you plan to travel to Machu Picchu with Inca Rail, in all our trains you can try different drinks made with typical products of the Andes. We are waiting for you to enjoy the best drinks of Peru!