We think it’s time to take another look at cachaça (pronounced kah-SHAH-sah), a spirit that had a moment about 10 years ago.
It’s one of the world’s most popular spirits and yet is not known widely in the U.S. In Brazil, however, cachaça is the national spirit and is used to make the nation’s most famous cocktail, the caipirinha (pronounced ky-pee-REE-nya).
Cachaça often gets compared with rum and used to be marketed as Brazilian rum. However, cachaça is made from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice, while rum most often is made with molasses, although rhum agricole from Martinique — also made with sugarcane juice — is the exception. Cachaça’s origins date to the 15th century Portuguese colonization of Brazil.
The fresh juice of sugarcane, which is a grass, can give the distillate bright, vegetal, fruity characteristics, especially in its clear, unaged form. Like rum or other brown spirits, cachaça sometimes is aged in wood barrels.
One unique aspect of cachaça is the use of indigenous Brazilian wood varieties — such as umburana, ipê, cedar, balsam, jatobá, freijó and jequitibá — in the aging process. Where most of the dark spirits such as bourbon, scotch or aged tequilas derive their flavor profile from charred oak, the Brazilian wood adds different flavors, like hazelnut or banana bread. Aged cachaça usually is sipped like a fine scotch but can be substituted for other brown spirits in cocktails, including a Manhattan or an old-fashioned.
The clear, unaged version is used in making Brazil’s caipirinha, which translates to “little country boy” — with the American colloquial equivalent being “hillbilly.” It is similar to such Caribbean cocktails as a daiquiri or ‘ti punch but the technique in making it varies. Sugar and lime pieces are muddled together, not only to extract the citrus juice but also the pleasantly bitter oils from the fruit. The cachaça is added to this mixture and is shaken vigorously. This emulsified concoction is not strained but is poured directly into a short glass. Bartenders sometimes call this using “dirty ice.”
As the temperatures outside are hinting at spring warmth, this is a spirit and cocktail we like, to help break our hibernation. One of our favorite artisanal producers is Novo Fogo, whose environmentally minded, sustainable cachaças are worth searching out, not only for the company’s practices but for their delightful flavor.
CAIPIRINHA
- 2 ounces cachaça
- ½ lime, cut into wedges
- 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
Add the lime and sugar to one half of a cocktail shaker and muddle.
Add cachaça and ice and shake vigorously. (The ice can be measured by filling the rocks glass that the cocktail will end up in.)
Pour the entire contents of the shaker into the rocks glass — no straining necessary. Enjoy.
Serves 1.
Per serving: 189 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), trace protein, 16 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams total sugars, 1 gram fiber, trace total fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 1 milligram sodium.
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