Cachaça & Caparinhas

Cachaça & Caparinhas

Cachaça is the national spirt of Brazil. Its a rum, but its not like any rum you’ve ever tasted, in fact you can immediately tell the difference even you have a weak palate. Its usually clear and its distilled from sugar cane. Its pretty harsh stuff unless you mix it with a lot of lime and sugar. In which case, you think have the Caipirinha. Going to brazil and not having a Caipirinha is like going to France or Italy and not having a glass of wine or cup of coffee. Even if you don’t like it, you have to try it. Below is a photo from a restaurant proudly displaying all the various different kinds of cachaça that are made. You can even see the still they use to distill the spirit.

But let’s start from the beginning. It starts in the fields of the Brazilian country landscape where workers pick the sugar cane. On the left you see a woman transporting a bucket of cachaça berries which will be crushed and distilled like wine would be.So, I thought I would get one from the natives on the beach making it in its most pure form.There is the berry which you can see is encased in an outer shell.As you can see, the bartender used a different brand of cachaça than I have seen before.