Earlier this month, the citizens of Chile went to the polls to vote on a new constitution devised by the Socialist Party. Finding themselves temporarily in power, the Left had set about drafting a set of foundational laws that would have ensured they stayed in power. Happily, the good people of Chile, seeing the ersatz constitution for what it was, rejected it overwhelmingly. Seventy-eight percent of voters weighed in against the constitution, which would have enshrined 388 rights in the country’s sloppily worded and poorly thought out proposed supreme law guarantees, leading to fights over just what it means to have a constitutional assurance to be at “the highest possible state of health,” including “holistic well-being, including its physical and mental aspects.” Imagine the lawsuits.
I think that is worthy of a toast. But what should be in the glass we raise in recognition of Chileans’ stand for democracy and freedom? I propose piscolas, all around. It is not only the most popular cocktail in Chile, but it is made with an ingredient, Coca-Cola, that drives the Left bat-guano crazy.
Coca-Cola has long come with crates of political baggage. After Chile’s military coup in 1973, middle- and upper-class Chileans were blamed for selling out their society for some brand-name soup. They acquiesced to fascist rule, one critic wrote in 1973, “in exchange for social privilege and the ability to consume GM cars, RCA TV’s (to view the I Spy and I Love Lucy programming), Dow Household cleaners (for the maid’s convenience), Coca Cola and the other niceties of industrial civilization.”
The international Left sneered at what they called “Coca-Cola capitalism.” Coke was a stock villain responsible for ruin and downfall, long hated by Marxists as whiskey was despised by the ladies of the Temperance Union. Andy Warhol, by contrast, celebrated Coke for making every man (and woman) a king: “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest,” Warhol wrote. “You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.” Socialists the world over have viewed Coca-Cola as an effervescent tool of Yankee imperialism, holding the oppressed at soda gunpoint. It was a sort of Ice-Cold War within the Cold War.
What the Left didn’t like was the soda’s radical equality: “All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.” Warhol wrote. “Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it.” And so it seems appropriate to me that we mark the remarkable defeat of Chile’s socialist power grab with a Coke. Or even better, a Chilean cocktail made with Coke — the piscola.
I’ve written in this space before about Coca-Cola’s astonishing ability to blend with just about any spirit. In that column, I mentioned Chileans’ taste for piscola, a drink of Coke and pisco, an excellent and distinctive Chilean brandy. But for all its simplicity, Chilean bartenders go by a certain building code in constructing a piscola worthy of Liz Taylor (and yes, worthy of that bum on the corner, too).
First, fill a highball glass with ice. Stir the ice vigorously with a long bar spoon. Don’t stop until the glass is as cold as the ice. Toss the ice out and fill the frigid glass with fresh cubes.
Next comes the brandy, called pisco. It is important, here, that you be aware of pisco politics. Chile and Peru have long scuffled over who first made pisco and over who makes the best pisco. I won’t try to answer either of those questions. But I do advise that a Chilean piscola be made with Chilean pisco. The brands you are most likely to see are Mistral and Capel. There are some boutique piscos from Chile newly available in the states, such as El Gobernador. Add the pisco to the glass slowly.
Even more slowly, add the Coca-Cola so that it doesn’t lose any of its fizz. Combine the pisco and cola with a gentle vertical stir. Rub the rim of the glass with lemon peel. Salud!
Eric Felten is the James Beard Award-winning author of How’s Your Drink?
