Cheer for Canada with some Caipirinhas
This sweet, rustic Brazilian classic cocktail is pure gold
Calling cachaca a rum will raise hackles. Rum is made from molasses, whereas cachaca is distilled from sugar cane juice
The race to name this summer’s “it” cocktail is over — thanks to the Olympics, the Caipirinha gets gold. Even the Russian judge agrees.
Reaching a consensus on the Cocktail of Summer 2016 wasn’t hard, since, besides being the official national cocktail of Brazil, the Caipirinha (pronounced ki-pee-reen-yeah) is simple, rustic and sweet — perfect for summer drinking.
It’s really just four ingredients, too: ice, lime, sugar and cachaca, the latter of which is Brazil’s signature sugarcane spirit, often referred to as, simply enough, “firewater.”
As derogatory as that term might sound, it’s probably better than calling cachaca a rum, which will raise hackles — rum is usually made from molasses, whereas cachaca is distilled from fresh sugar cane juice.
That’s a significant distinction, both in terms of national pride and flavour.
Rum, smooth, rich and sweet, typically tastes nothing like cachaca, which is rough and fiery — two unlikely sounding qualities that a lot of bartenders look for.
“As they say in Brazil, the worse the cachaca, the better the Caipirinha,” says Steve Fernandes, owner of Parkdale’s Mata Petisco Bar. “And it’s true. I’ve tried using smoother, aged varieties when I was working on coming up with a good recipe for Mata’s Caipirinha and it just gets totally lost in the drink.”
There are only two brands of cachaca available at the LCBO: Pitu (#600833, $26.75) and Leblon (#307488, $38.80).
The latter is briefly aged in oak, which takes the edge off this smoother, fruitier, premium version.
These two brands, different as they are from one another, don’t even come close to the gamut of spirits made in Brazil, which includes products that promise to cure impotence (and may or may not include added Viagra to world-class craft offerings that have been painstakingly pot-distilled and aged in exotic woods).
Of the 1.3 billion litres of cachaca produced in Brazil annually, less than 1 per cent makes it out of the country for export, much of it to Germany, where the Caipirinha is everywhere, Fernandes says.
“I still have to explain to most of my customers what cachaca is,” says Fernandes.
“But more and more people seem to be familiar with the Caipirinha, mostly because they’ve been to Brazil. Or Europe.”
This ice-cold drink is the perfect way to stay refreshed while watching the Olympics, whether you’re flying down to Rio or tuning in from up here.
As they say in Brazil: Tim tim!
Caipirinha
2 espresso spoons sugar 4 wedges lime 2 oz (60 mL) cachaca 3/4 oz (20 mL) simple syrup 1 oz (30 mL) lime juice Sugar cane for garnish
In the bottom of a glass, muddle limes with sugar.
Add muddled mixture, ice, cachaca, simple syrup and lime juice to a cocktail shaker. Shake long and hard, until it’s icy cold.
Pour everything into chilled rocks glass.
Fernandes cautions that it’s so easydrinking it can disappear dangerously quickly.
Blame it on Rio!