drink
Picon Punch
Bitter orange amer, a spoon of grenadine, soda, a float of brandy, a lemon twist. Basque America's drink, and not a Basque Country one.
Adrian Scottow from London, England · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Commons
Now
Nevada made it the official state cocktail in 2025. Ask for one in Bilbao and nobody will know what you mean.
Before
It appears to have been put together in the American West, most likely San Francisco, in the last years of the 1800s — Amer Picon had just reached the coast, Gold Rush bar culture was running, and Basque boarding houses took it up as a house pour. One of the earliest printed versions is in the second edition of William Boothby's American Bartender, San Francisco, 1900, filed simply as Amer Picon.
The glass is regionalcited
Northern Nevada pours it into a six-ounce stemmed glass — a stock Libbey 8054 Georgian Irish coffee, or a custom one from the Louie Picon Glass Company of Sparks. Elsewhere it lands in a highball or a Collins, at twice the volume.
The bitter has a supply problemcited
Amer Picon from Marseille is not reliably available in the United States, so bars pour Torani Amer instead — a San Francisco product, made for more than sixty years. In 2024 California required an ingredient re-certified and it vanished from the market; drinkers carried their own bottles into the bars. In December 2024 Torani gave the recipe and the global rights to Ferino Distillery in Reno for nothing, stopped making it in March 2025, and Ferino began in April. Nevada's state cocktail is now made in Nevada.
What it was forcited
Gaétan Picon built the original bitter in 1837 as a malaria remedy in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria — quinine, bark, roots, orange.
Build
- amer (Amer Picon where you can get it; in the United States, Torani Amer or the Ferino version)
- grenadine
- soda water
- a float of brandy
- a lemon twist
- Build over ice.
- Float the brandy.
- Twist the lemon over the top.
proportions not reproduced — the houses that pour it do not publish themcited
Kin
Louis' Basque Cornerroombills itself as home of it← the house claims it
J.T. Basque Bar and Dining Roomroomcalls it a mandatory beginning to dinner← the house calls it mandatoryWool Growers Restaurantroompours one for $8← poured at the bar here for $8The bitter has a supply problemstorythe long version of the bitter's supply problem← the record with the build and the glassware
Nevadaregionthe state that made it official← the drink this state made officialThe Picon glasswordthe six ounces it is built in← what is poured into itThe Brass Railroompoured at the far north-east corner of California← poured at this bar
Kalimotxodrink← the other Basque American drink, and the one that stayed here
Patxarandrink← the other bitter-sweet thing a Basque bar poursBasque breakfastevent← what the bar opens with, even at breakfastLouis Erreguibleperson← the drink his house claimsSources
- Picon Punch — Wikipedia, encyclopedia · read 2026-09-16
- The Picon Punch Cocktail Makes a Comeback — PUNCH, magazine · read 2026-09-16
- Putting the Amer in America — Wine Enthusiast, magazine · read 2026-09-16
- Picon Punch — the Basque American drink — Euskal Kazeta, article · read 2026-09-16
- Tasting Basque: Nevada's Picon Punch — Smithsonian Folklife Festival, museum · read 2026-09-16
- Torani and Ferino Distillery Partner to Preserve the Iconic Amer Liqueur — Business Wire, press release · read 2026-09-17
- Picon Panic: key ingredient for iconic Nevada cocktail unavailable until mid-August at the earliest — This Is Reno, news · read 2026-09-17
- Libbey 8054 Georgian Irish Coffee stemmed glass, 6 oz — Bargreen Ellingson, restaurant supplier · read 2026-09-17
Record provenance: cited · confidence high · updated 2026-09-17