There were times when people didn’t even hear about Pisan, but here, in Ukraine, it was generally extremely unpopular, the most unsold drink in bars. But times are changing and, which is very pleasant, the best times of Pisan have come thanks to the Ukrainian bartender, who came up with the most ingenious cocktail of our time – Green Mexican. But first things first.
Pizan is a banana liqueur based on a green banana emulsion. Ambon is the name of the island where, according to legend, these same bananas are taken. The first version of the drink was created by Bols International and was called Original Pisang Ambon. It is based on an ancient Indonesian recipe. Now it is made by different companies, but, as with Blue Curacao, the most popular producer is the Dutch company De Kuyper (De Kuyper), only they call the liquor simply Pisang. In general, you will not find much information about Pisan on the Web – somehow it did not take root in the vastness of the World Wide Web, but on the shelves of Ukrainian and not only bars, even very much.
He himself is gently green in color, with a very pleasant smell and taste. I would say that its taste qualities bring me back to my childhood – it reminds me of Duchess sweets and even Tutti-frutti chewing gum, which is a little beloved by everyone. Fortress 21%. In its pure form, it is drunk perfectly, but it is very sweet, so it is better to add it to cocktails. One of them breathed a second life into Pisan Ambon.
Cocktail Green Mexican – glory to Pisan
The bartenders did not know what to do with the newly-made liquor, which for some reason the managers of the establishments began to order. Today, by the number of Pisan sales, Ukraine is in first place in Europe. It all started back in 1996 in the bar “Eric’s bar” (Kyiv). The bartender could not appease the two girls who demanded original cocktails from him. He had a bottle of unpopular Pisan in his hands and he asked, probably to himself: “what to do with this liquor?” He was answered by another guest of the institution – bartender Serhiy Kodatsky, founder of the International Bartending Center “Planet Z” and current honorary president of the All-Ukrainian Association of Bartenders. He came up with a recipe for a cocktail with Pisan, which determined the future of the “unfortunate liqueur”.
Cocktail Green Mexican
Ingredients:
- 25 ml Pisan Ambon liqueur;
- 10 ml of lemon fresh;
- 25 ml silver tequila.
Preparation:
- pour Pisan into the pile;
- use a bar spoon to layer the lemon juice;
- repeat the previous procedure with tequila.
This is a classic shot drink, that is, a Puss Cafe cocktail. The ingredients are fairly easy to layer and require little skill (for the uninitiated, I have an article on how to make layered cocktails). If you don’t have a bar spoon with a spiral and a nickel on hand, use the tip of a knife or an ordinary teaspoon (coffee spoon is even better). Fresh take exactly 10 ml, no more – these are the most balanced proportions. Unscrupulous bartenders pour more of it just to save on expensive tequila and Pisan.
Green Mexican is not set on fire!!! You can drink a cocktail either in one gulp or through a straw, only from the bottom up, which corresponds to Sergei’s idea: first, strong tequila, then sour juice, which will bring down the bitterness of silver, and then sweet, fragrant Pisan, leaving just the most pleasant aftertaste in your mouth.
The cocktail has a lot of variations. If you replace Pisan with Blue Curacao liqueur, you get Blue Mexican, Kalua coffee liqueur – Brown (black) Mexican, DeKuyper Peach Cream peach liqueur – Yellow Mexican. There is even a Golden Mexican – Pisan Ambon is replaced by Gold Strike liqueur, which includes gold leaf. I don’t know why, but if you replace tequila with absinthe, you get a Green Spaniard cocktail (why not French?). Today, the Green Mexican cocktail is the best-selling shot in Ukraine (believe me, I made dozens of them myself). It is also known abroad – Ukrainian immigrants brought the recipe to the USA. In terms of popularity, only the B-52 shot can be compared with it.
By the way, for ardent fans of short drinks, Sergey Kodatsky modernized his masterpiece – in 2008, the Green Mexican-Shadows cocktail was presented to the public. To prepare it, you need to take 50 ml of tequila, 20 ml of Pisan and 15 ml of fresh juice, mix it all with ice in a shaker and pour through a strainer into a cocktail glass.