Piscola

Chile's beloved national highball - simply pisco and cola over ice, the South American answer to Cuba Libre.

The Piscola is Chile's most widely consumed cocktail — a two-ingredient combination of Chilean pisco and cola whose simplicity and accessibility have made it as culturally ubiquitous in Chile as the Cuba Libre in Cuba or the Jack and Coke in the American South. The name directly combines the two ingredients: pisco and cola. Chilean pisco is produced primarily in the Atacama (III Region) and Coquimbo (IV Region) administrative regions of northern Chile, in desert valleys including the Elqui, Limarí, and Choapa, where the extreme aridity and intense sunlight produce grape varieties of high sugar concentration. The Chilean pisco industry is dominated by two major producers — Compañía Pisquera de Chile (whose brands include Mistral and Alto del Carmen) and Pisquera Elqui (whose brands include Pisco Control and El Gobernador) — alongside numerous smaller artisan producers. Chilean pisco is typically lighter and more neutral in character than Peruvian pisco, having been produced through multiple distillation stages and sometimes aged in oak barrels, and this lighter profile makes it particularly suitable for mixing with cola and other soft drinks. The Piscola's social function in Chile is precisely that of any national highball: accessible, affordable, uncomplicated, and present at every social gathering from family barbecues to nightclub tables.