Cachaça cocktails

What cachaça is

Cachaça is a Brazilian spirit distilled from fermented fresh sugar cane juice, not from molasses like most rum. Under Brazilian rules it is bottled between 38 and 48 percent alcohol and must be produced in Brazil. The fresh cane gives it a grassy, vegetal and fruity character.

Styles

• Prata or branca (silver, white): unaged or rested in neutral containers. Fresh and grassy, the classic choice for a Caipirinha.
• Ouro (gold) and aged cachaça: matured in wood. Besides oak, Brazilian woods such as amburana or jequitibá are used, which add spice, vanilla or nutty notes.

Industrial cachaça is often column distilled and made in large volumes, while artisanal cachaça is usually pot distilled in small batches.

The Caipirinha

The Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail: half a lime cut into wedges and muddled with sugar in a rocks glass, then filled with cachaça and ice. Muddle gently to release juice and oils without crushing the bitter white pith too hard. Crushed or cracked ice is traditional.

Other cachaça drinks

Batidas combine cachaça with fruit juice, coconut milk or condensed milk, shaken or blended. Cachaça also works well in sours, in punches with passion fruit and as a substitute for white rum in many recipes.

Typical ratios

A Caipirinha uses about 50 to 60 ml cachaça, half a lime and two teaspoons of sugar (or 15 to 20 ml simple syrup). For a sour, use 50 ml cachaça, 25 ml lime juice and 20 ml syrup.