Chilean Pisco - and Peruvian Pisco

 

Chilean Pizco from the Chile stand at the World Travel Market at ExCel in London.

This is Pizco, which comes from Chile (and Peru). I tried it at the World Travel Market on a stand in Excel in London, which was held in November 2024.

The next World Travel Market will be November 4-6 2025.

Spanish is a language which will take you far.

In South America all the countries speak Spanish as the main official or common language, often with a few other languages, except for big Brazil which speaks similar sounding Portuguese.

Pizco is Spanish for a little bit, or a pinch, We use the word pinch in English when recipes say a pinch of salt.

Chile imports

I loved the Pizco, which I had with large slice of sweet grapefruit. Having read up about it, i realises why I like it. Several versions feature the sweet muscat grape.

But you can get sweet or sour tipples. Pizco is served in several cocktails such as Pizco Sour which is made with bitters. Wikipedia has a list of the cocktails, as well as the origin of the name. 

It appears that both Chile and Peru claim Pizco as the national drink. The many varieties of the cocktail are listed in Wikipedia, as well as the amounts of produce and the countries buying it. Chile makes Pisco but the drink is so popular that they also import a lot from Peru.

Peruvian

• Puro (Pure), made from a single variety of grape, mostly Quebranta, although Mollar or Common Black can be used; however, no blending between varieties is accepted ("pure" pisco should contain only one variety of grape).
• Aromáticas (Aromatic), made from Muscat or Muscat-derived grape varieties, and also from Albilla, Italia and Torontel grape varieties; once again, the pisco should only contain one variety of grape in any production lot.
• Mosto Verde (Green Must), distilled from partially fermented must, this must be distilled before the fermentation process has completely transformed sugars into alcohol.
• Acholado (Multivarietal), blended from the must of several varieties of grape.

Some other specific restrictions of note are:^{[citation needed]}

• Aging: Pisco must be aged for a minimum of three months in vessels of "glass, stainless steel or any other material which does not alter its physical, chemical or organic properties".
• Additives: No additives of any kind may be added to the pisco that could alter its flavor, odor, appearance or alcoholic proof.
• 
  
• Chilean Pisco

• Pisco Corriente o Tradicional, 30% to 35% (60 to 70 proof)
• Pisco Especial, 35% to 40% (70 to 80 proof)
• Pisco Reservado, 40% (80 proof)
• Gran Pisco, 43% or more (86 or more proof)
• 
  
• Cocktails
• Chilcano de Pisco, a Peruvian cocktail made with Pisco, lemon juice, ice, bitters, and ginger ale.
• Piscola, also called "national cocktail" in Chile (Spanish: Combinado nacional or combinado) a cocktail prepared mixing Coca-Cola and pisco. Other combinations of Pisco and cola include the Perú Libre differentiating the same drink made with different origin piscos.
• Pisco Sorpresa, a cocktail originated in East London, inspired by the Latin American classic. Involves shaking gin, Cointreau, triple sec, Bacardi and pisco, adding raspberry juice, pouring into a cocktail glass and finishing off with a dash of soda, grenadine and a squeeze of lemon.
• Don Alfredo, a Peruvian cocktail made with mosto verde Pisco, St Germain, lime juice, ice and soda water.

What have I learned? That I will have a good time visiting Chile and Peru, Chilean and Peruvian restaurants in London or worldwide, or ordering Pisco online, eg from Tesco, and going to next year's World Travel Market.

Chilean restaurants in London listed on Yelp include El Vergel which means Orchard, Southwark area, an SE1 postcode.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisco

https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Chilean+Food&find_loc=London

https://www.drinkfinder.co.uk/c/210/pisco

Please share links to your favourite posts.

A Colourful, Crazy World: King of Colour, Corbusier; hats on UK mail boxes; and murals worldwide

 I read about a woman who painted her door pink in Edinburgh, Scotland, in a conservation area. She was fined and told to repaint the door in muted colours to match the general historic colour scheme of the area.

Some people can't resist painting a door or wall in a bright jolly colour. Or even painting a scene, or a trompe l'oeuil. Or a political statement or amusing image.

Britain has Banksy in Bristol, England. More Banksy pictures appear in London, and in galleries, and on walls worldwide.

Tenby in Wales has colourful external walls. 

London has amusing and colourful knitted and crochet post box toppers.

More murals in Brixton. Others in London's East End.

Valparaiso, Chile, South America

Rio, S America

But the cold, wet and windy seasides also have colour.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

In Europe, after WW2 Corbusier put colour on a block of flats in Marseilles, France. Oddly, for years I knew about the colours, which were so rarely copied. But the most remarkable thing about his blocks of flats was the creation of a village in the sky with an internal street with shops and amenities.

Incidentally, a seated statue of Corbusier, who I consider the king of colour, is in Moscow, Russia.

Useful Websites

USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mural_Arts_Philadelphia

CANADA

https://nationalpost.com/news/toronto/a-little-colour-city-of-toronto-commissions-artists-to-hand-paint-designs-on-traffic-signal-boxes

UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box_topper

For and against a pink front door in a conservation area>

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63426312

How the Greeks and Romans painted statues which we display as plain white

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p0crtd9v/chromophobia-who-stole-the-colour-from-classical-art-?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=exchange&tblci=GiBp0WTFUBI3-65A4u54LMQJIAg3dAXEJn6N03WDlMTAAiCMjFQott6FnJijnNWtAQ#tblciGiBp0WTFUBI3-65A4u54LMQJIAg3dAXEJn6N03WDlMTAAiCMjFQott6FnJijnNWtAQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromophobia

S AMERICA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela_Painting

INDIA

https://www.livepeppy.com/chalrangde/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/584693964137505850/

Worldwide

https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/colourful-towns

https://www.rd.com/list/towns-colorful-houses/

Follow me, Angela Lansbury, intrepid tourist, to see the weird and wonderful places and people, food and drink, hotels and museums, worldwide.

Please save and share links to your favourite posts.

A Warm Welcome In Chile

Problem
Chile is in South America, yes, most of us know that, but - ahem, what more do you know about it?
Looking at the map, the larger country of Argentina (don't cry for me) to the right or East takes up most of the other half of the tail of South America.

On Wikipedia you can click on the national anthm to the right of your screen and hear the jolly music played by what sounds like a brass band with cymbals, and watch the words about the country, including 'embroidered with flowers' and 'refuge from oppression'.

The country's name used to be spelled Chili, but, catch up folks, it's now Chile. The name has several possible origins, most of which are obscure and instantly forgotten. The memorable ones are that it was the word for snow in a local language, or the sound of a bird. Very visual and appropriate for a potential tourist.

Answers
First, where is it? Along the left hand side of South America. Long and thin, north to south. Snake shape country.

Who, what, when, where, why?

Who To Know About
Allende, (Salvador Allende) Marxist President in office for 40 years. Introduced many worthwhile reforms but nationalised copper industry, which failed, and suffered major inflation, finally a truckers' strike brought a crisis and Allende committed suiced (disputed) with a gun given to him by Castro of Cuba. His daughter was called Isabel and so was his second neice, the author Isabel Allende.


I started typing Isobel, found the correct seplling was Isabel, and now easily remember that with the mnemonic or memory aid: Isabel - She is a belle.
Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits.


Chile has:
Allende family - President Salvador, and writer Isabel, whose novels use magical realism.
Andes mountain on the East, some snow-capped and reflected in lakes.
Authors
Democracy
Dictatorship
Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda, Nobel Prize winner.

Pinochet (took over from Allende in mitary coup)
Speak Spanish. A chance to practise your Spanish, or plan to learn Spanish.
Wines!

What Next
Two well known Pacific islands controlled by Chile might interest you:
Easter Island with its weird statues of primitive looking people.

Robinson Crusoe Island where Alexander Selkirk was marooned, whose story was one of several which inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe, although the author set his story in the better known Caribbean.

(Come back for more later today or at the weekend.)
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Branding And Improving The Image And Reality of Chile and other Countries for Tourists

The BBC ran an article about branding countries to tourists and investors. Yes, Chile's mountains reflected in water look beautiful. But so are the Lake District in the UK, the fjords in Norway, and the mountains in New Zealand.

Unique Selling Point
What's unique about Chile? The mountains reflected in water are lovely. However, the giant cacti are an equal or better unique selling point.

Image Improvement
Reading the BBC news article about branding countries including Chile, my opinion is your image does not improve by making your logo a new colour but by having something special and different to see.

But even that won't work when crime makes the headlines. It's no good having a pretty logo when the news says that somebody just got killed in your capital city and the crime rate is not going down but up. Don't invest your time and money in hushing up the crime. Invest in catching criminals and reassuring tourist that they are being protected.

Priority Spending
Also, not investing and donating overseas but in fixing crime and danger and inconvenience in your own country. We learned when the Americans stopped coming to the UK during a crisis that the tourist industry, the hotels, depend not so much on ten packpackers but as on one elderly couple booking the hotel suite for their holiday of a lifetime.

If your nearest and dearest got mugged in a city you don't go back, however pretty the logo. See Naples and die - supposed to mean it's on your bucket list. Unfortunaely might have another conotation.

Top Tourists
A few high payers make a ten per cent difference to the profit which was the difference between profit and loss. (Admittedly, the middle aged elderly couple in the three, four or five star hotel may be there to watch over their student offspring or boy scout nearby at a hostel or in a tent in a field on a cheap summer trip.)

What Needs Fixing
The UK and USA need to stop sending money overseas and fix their own crime and social deprivation. In the UK we have roads, the NHS, crime and pensions which need fixing before dealing with everybody else's problems. Fix your family first, your country second, the world third.

Brexit Bother
Brexit is proving a huge waste of taxpayers and ministers' time and money. We are importing criminals and imprisoning them with nothing to do but learn new crime methods from each others when they should be trained to perform useful work and sent home to help. We need full employment worldwide so everybody can make their own clothes, and shoes, grow and cook food and build and repair their own houses - to safety standards.

Internet Advantages
The internet is doing a good job spreading health advice and great ideas and we have both children and adults working on inventions and projects such as bringing toilets and wind-up radios to schools and remote villages.


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Ten Level Human Tower in Spain, more in Mumbai and Chile

Why and Where Did It Start
Human towers are feats of teamwork as well as endurance and a spectacle for a festival, a competition.

Heights
It's not just about trust, strength, endurance, teamwork. This is not a sport for those afraid of heights. How high can you go?

Judging A Contest
How do you judge a contest? You have to build the tower neatly with nobody dropping out as you build it or dis-assemble it.

Teamwork
Teamwork? The people at the bottom are a larger group creating a cone, yet their faces look quite exhausted and strained as they support the weight of those standing and climbing above. You can't lean back, move, you have to stay in position. The lightest are at the top with a child at the pinnacle.

Speed in Contests
The quicker you can climb up, the quicker you can beat the record, beat another team, and save the shoulders below of the strain.

I must admit I would not want one person standing on my shoulders, let alone a tower of ten.

Where To Watch
A ten level human tower has just been achieved. If you like human displays you can watch the video. The video was on Red Bull TV. I shared it on my Facebook page.

Where did it happen?
Vilafranca del Penedès, Tarragona, Spain.
October 4 2016.
Video on the BBC.
www.thehumantower.com

Villafranca is also known for chocolate coloured eggs, not dyed but from Penedesenca chickens laying chocolate coloured eggs, and the wine museum. P e n e d e s is a wine area, one hour south west of Barcelona. P e n e d e s (I am inserting spaces because autocorrect prefers the word pennies) is known for cava (bubbly) as well as red, white and dessert wines.

Where Worldwide?
Teams train all over the world, in Spain in Europe, in South America in Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile, in Asia in Mumbai, India.
Another took place in Mumbai, India, trained by an enthusiast. (Mumbai used to be called Bombay, beautiful bay in Portuguese, on the west coast of India.)

India
On aug 17 the BBC reported that a Mumbai court had banned children from under age of 18 as it was deemed dangerous and also banned towers too high, not over 20 feet, six metres.

* India
* Chile
* Spain
Check spelling of v i l a f r a n c a. Autocorrect keeps changing it to double ll.

Villafranca, Catalonia, Spain
* Wine Museum
* Chocolate coloured eggs
* Human Tower competition

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Haze problem and solutions

The haze seems to be getting worse each year. Indonesian fires in Sumatra affecting Malaysia and Singapore. Up from one month of pollution to three.

People I've spoken to have said they had turned down job offers in Shanghai and Beijing because of the pollution.

Is this problem unique to Asia? What about polluted air in America? First let's look at South America. We don't hear about pollution there. But in South America my neighbour's family had to leave Chile because their children were having breathing problems.

What about North America. Fires have erupted in 2015 in California, I was reminded about this by my neighbours in the UK who have family in the USA. My British neighbours blamed the fire in California on a year of drought. The Californian authorities are bringing in water from adjacent states to fight fires.

We See Sea Water
Why? California is a coastal state. in Indonesia, Sumatra is a giant area, but surrounded by sea. What lessons can the problems and solutions of one area teach us?

I asked why the Californians cannot use sea water? The answers seem to be:
1) Collecting sea water is more hazardous to helicopters because of tides and currents.
2) Salt water kills grass for years afterwards.
3) Salt water corrodes the fire fighting equipment.
4) Salt water is bad for fresh water fish.

So that's another idea that's been considered but doesn't work. However, we should take heart from the words of Edison, which are repeated in so many forms (probably based on variations of the original said by him at different times): I have not failed 1000 times. I have tested 1000 ways which will not work. I am now much nearer my goal.

Divide and Prevent
I was looking for news about the haze when I found a forum of discussion on haze after that article. The one new idea I noticed was to divide the country like a grid into squares and put different ministers in charge of preventing pollution in their area.

Carrots and Sticks for Success
Ministers who fail will lose their job. Those who succeed win honours. If all other methods have been tried and they have not worked, maybe this is the last one available.  It will also be the last 'cure', because if it succeeds, you won't need any more. The ministers who succeed in stopping the fires in their designated area will win the accolades.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-slams-indonesia-over-haze-response-schools-shut-040601893.html