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Bartender Hans Hilburg: I want everyone to enjoy my country

By Vanessa Antúnez de la Vega

For 15 years Hans Hilburg has traveled between coasts of the United States. The bars of California, New York, and Seattle were his schools. He returned to Perú bringing with him a very exotic drink recipe, Sex on the Beach which he tried to made famous in the late 80s. But he received a blow when he came up against Pisco.

He absorbed aromas, fragrances, storys and became a specialist in fine cocktails. Since then, he created cocktail menues for bars, restaurants and has demonstrated the versatility of Pisco abroad in cities like London and Santiago Chile. Today Hans Hilburg has opens the doors of his latest personal project in Cusco: El Pisquerito, a bar that concentrates of all his experience and sense of.

A lot of bartenders dream of having their own bar but fall by the way side. What is different of those who make it?
Tending to bar can begin simply as a job but it depends on each one to make it a profession. It depends on how your developing it in a interesting way, on studying more and study it, starting do to make your own creations and taking seriously . Well, “seriously” in quotations because working in a bar is fun and a job that requires you to be 100 percent social.

How did you see it when you started out?
In the late-70s I went to the United States to work and had the luck of starting out in the meca of cocktail making, where all the greats classics were created. I began in a bar in San Francisco. Then I went to California, New York and Seattle. I stayed there for 15 years…

So this wasn’t a temporary job for you?
No, since the day I started I liked interacting with my clients. I said myself, this is it for me. So I began to get to know spirits like vodka. You need to know the liquors, their origin, their history, only then can you create your own cocktails, if not, you are lost.

Why did you return to Peru?
I came back to Peru in 1987 because of a family problem and I stayed. I opened a bar in Miraflores with the idea to present Sex on the Beach but during that time you couldn’t find any liquors, only national items, so I offered things with some variations. During the late-80s there were hardly any cocktails in Peru, least of all with Pisco. Until Bohemia restaurant was born with Gastón Acurio y Neto Jochamovich, they brought a totally new concept to gastronomy which involved foreign influences, which the locals didn’t know much about. It wasn’t until the mid-90s that liquor came to Peru and we began to create new cocktails, we could make a Sex on the Beach with all its ingredients, and well as as Orgasm (the drink that is).

If there were a lot of liquors available, what mad you try with Pisco?
Because it’s mine, it’s ours! An interesting brand was starting to sell called Viejo Tonel which gave Pisco an interesting turn. I remember I went as a bartender to compete with Pisco at a Central America contest in Aruba. Then I began to experiment with different garpe varieties to create more combinations.

But isn’t it true that Pisco tastes better plain?
I see it very differently. It could be that specialists appreciate a mosto verde Pisco in its original form but if we are trying to get people to appreciate our Pisco, Peruvians as well as foreigners, we cannot give them Pisco straight out of the bottle because their reaction can be negative. I have been in many countries where Pisco cocktails have been well received. For me, Pisco is the best spirit because it elevates all the flavors, that is, if you mix it well.

You went to the London International Wine Fair 2008 to present all the possible combinations of Pisco to bartenders. What were their reactions?
Pisco had created such a high expectations. We made a Pisco Collins and the Mosquito, which are like a Tom Collins and a Mojito but with Pisco and some other ingredients, and they thought it was fantastic. Now the real work to be done is to have Pisco stay in London, we don’t want it to be just a fad. I’ve seen a few bottles on sale in liquor stores but the idea is to offer Pisco in bars and offer Pisco cocktails. With Astrid and Gastón, Pisco has arrived in Caracas and Santiago de Chile but the idea is that it extends to other bars.

With all your experience you could have opened a bar in Lima. Why did you choose Cusco?
Because Pisco is not really developed over there. For me, it is very important to have bar folk identify with Pisco, otherwise, they wont do anything good for it. They’re not even going to make a good Pisco Sour.

What interests me is that the people who come to Cusco, which is 90 percent of the visitors who come to Peru, get to know Pisco the right way. I know bartenders who have a beautiful enthusiasm for Pisco and work well, but there are still a lot of places where it is just about the money.

What is the goal?
The goal is to make Pisco a classic drink. Im pleased that Peruvians, foreigners, and everyone enjoy my country, my fruit, my Pisco. It seduces me to see people happy and I believe when they see me doing things with passion, caramba, they too feel good. Besides, there are still more ways to advancing the cocktail industry because we’re talking about new products. It’s interesting that in Cusco kids can develop their new mixolog with their Cusco, with their city. On the other hand, we could show our Peruvian mixology to tourists who come on gastronomic tours, I also have a project to work with state entities to reinforce or reward locals who work with good products. Or we could work with the Regulating Council of Pisco Denomination of Origin so to the reward will those who work well.

How are you going to compet with the bars that are already established in Cusco?
First I am going to enter with the Institute of Wine and Pisco to do Pisco cocktail and tasting seminar. We are going to call upon restaurants, hotels, as well as young workers and hotel and restaurant, so that they learn to taste Pisco, get to know the history and can identify with it. To answer, because it is ours. Why do we have to demonstrate it as something sublime? On the other hand, we are going to offer special with all the products can find in Cusco. There are incredible fruits like the frutilla, a wild small strawberry with a very intense taste, which is used to make the typical “frutillada”.

What are the biggest problems facing bars and restaurants in term of cocktails ?
I do a lot of consulting to restaurants and bars which need help with their. Identification has a lot, to with it. If you don’t care for your place, nothing will go right. We coach and teach the people working in the bars. There are new places where I m putting together the bar and staffing it with the right personnel.

How do you select adequate personnel?
The first thing I tell kids when they enter a bar is to make me a Pisco Sour, there I look at their hand, their qualities, the touch, the style, and the ‘shake’. Sour means bittersweet, Its the perfect combination of the spirit with only two other ingredients, sugar and lime. If you can’t combine sugar and lime perfectly, then its better that you not try to do it with more ingredients. Therein lies the skill and taste of the bartender to serve you a perfect sour. Ok, some bartenders tell me they tend to serve girls a sweeter sour but that is wrong. Your sour always has to be sour, that is your mark.

To teach implies having to divulge some of your recipes. You don’t mind revealing them?
No, but there are some people who are like that. Today chefs don’t even bother to hide their recipes, they even cook in front of you. There are no secret recipes; the secret is in the passion. If you place 10 bartenders with same Pisco sour recipe I assure you that not one of them will come out the same. It depends on how you combine it, how you prepare it, how to get the juice from the lime. In the mixology you don’t have to invent anything, everything is right there, it all depends on the person as to create something delicious, special.

How will you choose which cocktails will be served in the new bar?
I’m creating innovative products that I know are going to be a hit. I will offert them out for three months to see if they work or not. I`ll have a cocktail of the week and if it’s a hit I`ll serve it for an additional week. But this is a bar. There are some Pisco cocktails that can only be served in cebicherías. There are also cocktails for broasted chicken or Chinese restaurants.

How will you be able to have a bar with good pisco and still compete with other restaurants or bars in Cusco?
You can make a great cocktail with a great product. A good 4 lt. bottle of Pisco for around S/.80 and, since its large volume, each bottle ends up cost around S/.20. A great cocktail, with great products, could sell for S/.15. For example, in Cusco, there are people who sell one Pisco Sour for S/.25, in the worst case scenario it could be made from “Cañazo” (not Pisco but anytipe of moonshine) that cost around S/.2. That is what we have to be careful about, that’s why it is important that we start to certify certain places. Right now there are no regulations, people do what they want with Pisco. Some mix the types of grapes, thet bring yeasts from other countries and use them to ferment Peruvian pisco giving another flavor, there is no control.

And all this now that Pisco is becoming a Peruvian Icon?
It already is an icon! That’s why it’s important that people respect it. It does not serve anyone well if you shout that Pisco is from Peru and then, bang, someone serves you a drink that is a disaster. That’s why it’s important to begin in Cusco so that people can identify the places where they won’t get scammed. It’s also why I’m very interested in having certification in bars that say, in both Spanish and English, that you can drink good Pisco here.

How great would it be if we had all the establishments said, ‘Compadre, we need to serve good Pisco, if not, we will not succeed!’

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2 comments

Sandra Arthur says :
17-09-08,02:18:20

Very nice and interesting article. I must say that there are lots of piscos in Peru, it is amazing! I know it very well and I must say that among a few I have tried, last year and during a visit to Arequipa, I had the privilege to drink a "pisco artesanal" (do not have the proper licence to be comercialized yet) named "Las Brujas"; made at an old family farm in Majes (Huancarqui) by William Guzman, a "Cusqueno" man that has been producing this pisco for some time now, with the help and guidance of his father-in-law who was the first producer and never distribute his pisco, but only among friends and family!
S. Arthur

Carole Anne Hooper says :
17-09-08,04:07:22

Hola, my name is Carole, I live in Australia. I wish Pisco was more readily available here. I have traveled to Peru 2 times now and am going back in January for 6 weeks. I first experienced Pisco in 2006, my first visit there. Pisco is one of my favoute drinks. I am looking forward to having a few Piscos when I return....I enjoyed reading your article.....bye for now...Carole

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