I’ve been (finally) really drilling into Pichin’s Tragos Magicos and I’ve been delighted and challenged by some of the ingredients. I’m hoping some of our South American members can help me out, here.
limón
Pichin uses a lot of limón but does not seem to differentiate between limón amarillo and limón verde, and Argentina appears to produce a lot of both. (He surprisingly does invoke the word “lima” in the front matter, but not in the recipes.)
aguardiente de Catamarca/aguardiente catamarqueño
My guess is this is aguardiente de uva—something pisco-like?
caña seca
caña de damasco
caña de durazno
cañas quemadas
Exciting that Pichin has an entire section of caña drinks. My expectation is these are sugar cane aguardientes, with the caña seca being a straight up distillate (cachaça-like?). Caña de damasco and caña de duration would be cañas de fruta. I can only guess at caña quemada, but maybe caramel-flavored/colored?
vermouth blanco tipo americano
Is there/was there a particular white vermouth in Argentina?
bitter rojo
Presume this is a reference to Campari or an Argentine Campari-esque red aperitif liqueur? Surprising no brand call.
licor monastique
Clearly not Chartreuse, so maybe one of the mid-Century faux-monastic herbal liqueurs like Bols’ or the stuff from Portugal? Or maybe there was a local Argentine product that was/is common?
licor Kermann verde
I presume this was a pastis. (Someone seems to have revived the brand in recent decades.)
licor amarillo
Another case where no brand call is surprising. Obviously an herb-infused liqueur or aguardiente, but could be so many different things.
refresco de grosella
refresco de frutilla
I presume these are bottled soft drinks that are popular in Argentina?
anís seco and anís dulce
Must be dry and sweet anisettes, perhaps Anis Del Mono?
jerez
There’s a lot of sherry throughout the recipes, but they are not specific what sort of sherry Pichin would be reaching for.
whisky
There’s a whisky cocktail section—would these all be scotch drinks?