cachaca_cocktails

Top 5 Cachaca Cocktails

Brazil's exquisite rum makes more than just a good caipirinha

Text by Naren Young, photos by Steven Torres

C achaca ("ka-sha-sa"), the national spirit of Brazil, resembles rum but is made from the first pressing of fresh sugarcane juice instead of molasses. As such, cachaca has a rustic earthiness that makes for a wonderful base in many modern cocktails, the most famous of which is the Caipirinha.

Caipirinha de Uva

The Caipirinha ("kye-pur-een-yah") is Brazil's legendary cocktail and it's enjoyed all over the country. Uva is Portuguese for grape. Making this variation on the classic drink is even easier than saying the name: It's a simple mix of crushed lime, sugar, cachaca, ice, and semisweet wine (I prefer Gewürztraminer or Riesling), which adds a lovely grapey-ness and should appeal to wine lovers.

Cachaca is BFF with fresh herbs, and the citrus acids hold up against the sharp sherry wine vinegar.

This was once a popular breakfast staple in Israel. The lime and grape flavors make for perfect lunch partners with the watermelon.

Pearl Button

Bartender John Deragon created this simple and extremely refreshing highball at the New York speakeasy PDT in the East Village. Lillet, a light and fragrant fortified wine from France, gives the drink a lovely and elegant floral note, while the lime juice is the ultimate thirst-quencher.

This simple appetizer is brimming with pungent aromas of charred oregano, an herb that flourishes against the floral Lillet and earthy cachaca.

The high acid and citrus notes from the Limonata cut through the fattiness in the oil as well as the saltiness in the prosciutto. Ideal with a late brunch.

Sangria Blanco

This is my own summer variation on a classic Sangria. It's invigorating but much richer than any traditional version because I add semisweet white wine. This drink also has Pisco, a clear Peruvian brandy, and the gorgeous St. Germain elderflower liqueur, a product taking the cocktail world by storm. The recipe below is designed for a single serving, but it could easily be made in large quantities for a punch bowl.

Cabernet's fruitiness and mouth-puckering tannins always match a bloody steak; the wine's chalkiness also works with the creamy cheese.

What could be more regionally appropriate with Sangria than olives and cheese? The olives bring out the savory nature of the cucumber, sage, and thyme.

Try this instead of a Mimosa: It's a light and cooling sparkling cocktail, perfect for a long and lazy Sunday brunch or a balmy evening by the BBQ. Or both. Apple, lime, and mint don't often make it to the same cocktail shaker, but here the combo works. Add a quality bubbly (Cava would be nice), and you get a very balanced, complex drink.

The dry Champagne will cut through the saltiness of the Parmesan and the herbal notes in the pistou.

Champagne always works with seafood because it has enough acid to cut through the brininess and is a lovely foil to the richness of crab meat.

Bloody Carioca

Carioca is slang for a native of Rio de Janeiro, and this variation on the classic Bloody Mary cocktail uses Brazil's local hooch as a base. The cachaca gives it a bite, while the addition of passion fruit (a local favorite in Brazil) adds a touch of zing. Note: Too many Bloody Marys are overly thick; this recipe really thins it out and livens it up.

The sharpness of the raw onion and watercress stands up to the meaty sauces and spices in the drink.

The spice in the drink and the spice from the harissa paste work well together. Hell, you could even add some harissa to the cocktail.

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Discover Cachaca and Find Great Cocktails

Call It Brazilian Rum If You Like, But Cachaca Is Unique

Cachaça is not simply a 'Brazilian rum,' though many people describe it that way. It's true that this liquor is distilled from sugar and it is very similar to rum, but it's also a unique. One thing is for certain, cachaça is one of the hottest spirits of the 21st century and it is quickly becoming a new favorite for many drinkers.

What is Cachaça?

Cachaça (pronounced kah-SHAH-sah) is a distilled spirit from Brazil that is often thought of as a style of rum.

The difference is that cachaça is made from sugar cane juice rather than the molasses that is typically used to produce rum.

The majority of cachaça is 40% alcohol by volume (80 proof). Yet, just like other distilled spirits, some producers choose to bottle their specialty cachaças at a higher proof. As is the case with whiskey, this means you're getting a liquor with a fuller flavor.

The flavor of cachaça can vary greatly though it often has a subtle sweetness (much less than rum). Many of the more industrial brands can have a chemical alcohol taste. Yet, some of the top shelf brands will have delicious notes of fruits and sweets.

Just like any other distiller, those who make cachaça can experiment with the sugar cane, distillation process, and barrel aging to bring out particular flavor nuances in the spirit.

Cachaça is Brazil's National Spirit

Cachaça is made exclusively in Brazil and is the national spirit of the South American country.

It has long been known as a poor man's drink though this is quickly changing and some brilliant artisanal cachaças are being produced today.

Not every bottle of cachaça is available internationally, though imports to the U.S. are increasing every year. As of 2016, there are over 3,000 legal cachaça distilleries in Brazil.

There are also many home stills making cachaça that are, shall we say, less than legal. You could call these the 'moonshiners' of Brazil if you like.

Tip: If you love to travel, there is a great network of cachaçarias (distilleries) to tour in Brazil.

In recent years, cachaça has gained recognition internationally, with much of the credit going to the increased popularity of the Caipirinha. This cocktail is not only the most popular drink made with cachaca but is Brazil's national drink as well.

• September 13 is National Cachaça Day.
• June 12 has been designated as International Cachaça Day.
• May 21 marks a regional cachaça celebration within the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Your First Cachaca Cocktails

The first drink that you need to make with every new bottle of cachaça is the famous Caipirinha. It is to cachaça what the Old-Fashioned is to bourbon and it's made the same way. It is, quite simply, muddled sugar and lime topped with cachaça and served over ice. It is a very fun recipe to play around with and you can muddle any fresh seasonal fruit into it to add a unique twist.

The Batida is another cocktail that is popular in Brazil and it is quite fascinating. This drink can take on many different flavors and is a delicious mix of cachaça, fruit, milk, and sugar.

It is delicious no matter how it's made and should definitely be on every cachaça drinker's list.

You can also add an exotic twist to drinks like Sangria by using cachaça and it is perfect for spiking your coffee as we see in the Café Brasileiro recipe.

Cachaça Deserves a Place in Any Bar

Cachaça is quickly finding a home in the modern bar and we are seeing it in some fantastic new cocktails. It is an extremely versatile liquor that pairs well with common and exotic flavors and it can be used in many rum cocktails as well.

A cocktail like the Melancia Sour pairs cachaça with lemongrass and watermelon while the Paulista opts for lavender and blueberry. The Rhyme & Reason mixes cachaça with Aperol and cinnamon for a delightful dinner drink. You can also remake favorite cocktails with cachaça as we see in the simple and fun Raspberry Bellini.

Go ahead, keep a bottle of cachaça in your bar and explore new brands as you come across them. One taste of a great cachaça and you'll see why it's a new favorite for many bartenders.

Brazilian cachaça cocktails for the World Cup

What better way to get in the World Cup spirit than with a Brazilian-style cachaça cocktail, asks Leah Hyslop

7:00AM BST 07 Jun 2014

The World Cup is upon us, and Brazilian-themed beverages are suddenly as sought-after by grown-ups as Wayne Rooney replica shirts are in the school playground. If you weren’t lucky enough to score tickets for Rio, why not create a little of that carnival atmosphere at home with some Brazilian-themed cocktails?

Unsurprisingly for a country where summer temperatures can reach 104F (40C), Brazilian cocktails are big on refreshment. Heavy use is made of the many tropical fruits that grow there, from passion fruit to pineapple, as well as sweet, thirst-quenching coconut water.

But the heart of the country’s drink scene is undoubtedly cachaça, a spirit that has been made there since the 16th century, and is to the Brazilians what whisky is to the Scots. Like rum, it is a product of sugar cane, but usually from fermented sugar cane juice, rather than dark and sticky molasses.

“Cachaça is by volume the third-most consumed spirit in the world,” says David Ponté, the co-owner of the Brazilian restaurant group Cabana. “It’s an affordable alcohol that you can mix with everything, but nobody seems to know about it – except the Brazilians, who guard the drink carefully. I hope this summer will see a great explosion of it.”

Cachaça comes alive in Brazil’s national drink, the caipirinha, a mouth-puckering, sharp-sour-sweet concoction of cachaça, lime and sugar that is both incredibly drinkable and incredibly potent. (Supposedly, the legendary Brazilian footballer Manoel Dos Santos, better known as Garrincha, used to drink them straight after breakfast; but I’d advise against following his example on match days – you probably won’t make it to half time).

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For those who like their drinks a little softer round the edges, there’s the batida, a mix of cachaça and fresh fruit that is often made creamier with condensed or coconut milk or, in winter, the marvellous quentão, Brazil’s equivalent of mulled wine, a steaming cup of cachaça with spices and citrus.

Not all cachaças are created equal. There are thousands of brands available in Brazil, “from litre-for-a-buck bottles that will kill you to high-quality aged ones”, says Ponté. Few are exported, however, and those that are can be at the rougher, mass-manufactured end of the scale. But some decent brands are now available in the UK, such as Velho Barreiro Cachaça, which is sold in Waitrose, or Leblon, which is available from specialist drinks websites such as masterofmalt.com. The South American bar and restaurant chain Las Iguanas even makes its own cachaça on a private sugar cane plantation near Rio, which you can buy from its website (Magnífica Cachaça, £21/litre: lasiguanas.co.uk/shop).

Some of the more “artisanal” cachaças are good enough to be sipped neat, but bear in mind, in Brazil it is traditional to spill a few drops “for the saints” before enjoying. Spare them a splash, and maybe the spirit-loving holy ones will kindly carry England to a World Cup victory.

A tribute to the World Cup and a take on Sangria: a red wine punch with an added slug of cachaça. It’s great for sharing and for celebrating with, so enjoy it with friends over a long evening in the sun.

225ml orange juice

110ml lemon juice

100ml simple sugar syrup (made by heating equal quantities of sugar and water over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved)

1 orange, sliced

A handful of mint leaves

Fill a large jug with ice cubes, then add the cachaça, orange and lemon juice and sugar syrup. Give the mixture a stir, then pour in the red wine. If you like, pour the red wine over the back of a tablespoon to create distinct layers within the jug. Garnish with the orange and lemon slices and mint leaves and serve immediately.

From Cabana: The Cookbook by David Ponte, Lizzy Barber & Jamie Barber (Quadrille, £18.99).

The caipirinha is Brazil’s national drink. Artesian’s head bartender Alex Kratena likes using big and pungent cachacas which produce refreshing caipirinhas with a long finish.

Makes one cocktail

20ml sugar syrup

Cut the lime into pieces and muddle inside a small tumbler. Pour the cachaça and sugar syrup over the lime and add ice. Stir the contents with a spoon or swizzle stick and top up with more ice. Place a medium-sized straw in the glass and garnish with a lime wheel and sugar cube. This way your guest can utilise the garnish to sweeten up the drink.

Passion fruit, sugar, cachaça and Benedictine, churned with ice and served long: an utterly refreshing cocktail.

Makes one cocktail

1 passion fruit

10ml passion fruit syrup

To make the passion fruit syrup, heat the pulp of 10 passion fruits in one litre of simple syrup. Strain.

Churn all the ingredients with a highball glass half-filled with crushed ice. Top with fresh ice and garnish with a passion fruit slice and a large mint sprig.

A sultry, earthy cocktail made with a combination of beetroot, cachaca, lemon and spices – delicious.

Makes one cocktail

½ cooked beetroot, chopped into small pieces

2tsp ginger syrup (you can buy this, but could also use the syrup from a jar of stem ginger)

16ml Velvet Falernum

16ml lemon juice

Pinch of Cayenne pepper

Muddle the beetroot with the sugar in a shaker, then add the rest of the ingredients. Shake hard with ice, then double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Drink this and you’ll be instantly transported to Copacabana beach. The combination of rum, cachaça, strawberries and coconut can’t help but give you that holiday feeling, even if you’re in rainy England in July.

50ml coconut cream

50ml lemon juice

50ml simple sugar syrup

90ml pineapple juice

180ml coconut water

100g strawberries, pureed with a little honey or sugar to taste

1 orange, sliced

Pour all the ingredients except the orange and lemon slices into a large jug and stir well. Fill with ice cubes and stir again. Top with lemon and orange slices.

From Cabana: The Cookbook by David Ponte, Lizzy Barber & Jamie Barber (Quadrille, £18.99).

20ml chai tea syrup (double strength tea mixed with equal parts sugar)

1 large orange slice, in chunks

1 lemon wheel, chopped in half

Muddle the fresh fruit with the chai tea syrup in a rocks glass.

Add the cachaça and some crushed ice and mix to chill and dilute.

Top with more crushed ice. Garnish with two orange wedges and sprinkle with cinnamon.

From Ypióca cachaça

Cachaça: World Cup spirit in a glass

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On the Cocktail Trail in Brazil, a Favorite Spirit Gets Frisky

By BRYCE T. BAUER SEPT. 28, 2017

As in many large countries, most of the popular stereotypes about Brazil unravel with the slightest tug. A nation of sunny beaches and exquisite tans on svelte bods? Sure, and chilly mountain towns and linebackers in the German enclaves in the south, as well. Dysfunctional politics? In the extreme, but what is functional politics nowadays, anyway?

Yet, in one area the homogeneity holds: the nation’s drink. If you said anything other than cachaça and the caipirinha, you’re thinking of the wrong place.

Across an area the size of the contiguous United States, there are thousands of cachaça stills, many unlicensed, that produce hundreds of millions of liters of the spirit annually.

What is clear is that the vast majority of it is consumed in Brazil and is a cheap variety, lacking in complex flavor, akin to fuel ethanol, and typically drunk neat or as a part of the caipirinha cocktail, said Felipe Jannuzzi, the co-founder of Mapa da Cachaça, which is an amalgam of sorts of sociology, guide and advocacy for high-quality cachaça.

But in São Paulo, the Brazilian metropolis that has always bucked some of the clichés about the nation (there are no beaches, for one), a few bars and bartenders are working to elevate cachaça as a connoisseur-worthy drink and as a key component of the city’s nascent cocktail culture. On a recent visit, I decided to stop in at a few of these to see how such cachaça was being used.

To get a sense of the wide variety of cachaças available, Mr. Jannuzzi and I took a seat at Empório Sagarana, a bar in the Vila Romana neighborhood (there’s also a second location in hip Vila Madalena) that is styled as a traditional boteco of the state of Minas Gerais, a stronghold of cachaça production. Instead of a typical selection of just a few cachaças, Empório Sagarana sports a menu of dozens, many with tasting notes. It also begins with a manifesto of what is good cachaça, which Mr. Jannuzzi helped write.

While Empório Sagarana serves a few pre-bottled cocktails, it is mainly a cachaça and beer place. As we sipped from shot glasses of Serra Limpa, one of the first organic cachaças, and another from Fascinação, Mr. Jannuzzi explained that cachaça comes in two main varieties: industrial and artisanal. Both are made from fresh sugar cane juice (unlike most rums, which are made from molasses), but the former is made on large column stills; the latter, the only type connoisseurs consider worthy to drink, is made on a smaller scale using pot stills. Like rum, cachaça is sold both unaged and aged. Unlike rum, however, cachaça producers don’t limit their aging to just oak — instead they may use barrels made from any of a couple dozen different Brazilian woods. Moreover, a small avant-garde of producers has recently started highlighting different varieties of sugar cane as well as releasing vintage cachaças, Mr. Jannuzzi said. All of this gives the handful of bartenders working seriously with cachaça in craft cocktails in São Paulo a wide gamut of flavors to experiment with and the ability to create cocktails highlighting an individual bottle, he said.

“They are making cocktails thinking of the brands, they use only one cachaça. I really like that. A cocktail custom-made for one brand of cachaça,” he said.

When I visited the bar Guarita in the Pinheiros neighborhood, the bartenders Jean Ponce and David Barreiro said that they often choose a cachaça for a cocktail based on the wood the cachaça was aged in. Amburana wood-aged cachaças, for example, work well in classic cocktails and with vermouth, while white cachaças and those with the almond and anise notes that come from bálsamo wood pair well with lime.

“Bálsamo wood is the future of cachaça,” Jean Ponce said via Greg Caisley, the bar’s owner and chef (Mr. Caisley, an Australian expat, served as translator for my conversation). “It is a very complex wood, it is a wood that speaks, it has minerals, herbs, citrus, it is perfect for cocktails.”

“You’ll understand when you taste it,” Mr. Ponce added, whipping me up a caipirinha made with Canarinha, a bálsamo-wood aged cachaça from Salinas, a city in the state of Minas Gerais and a stronghold of cachaça production. The Canarinha added more complexity than a typical caipirinha with unaged cachaça, as well as some bitterness; overall, it was a drier and, perhaps, a less-beach friendly concoction.

While many of the cachaça cocktails I had in São Paulo that weren’t caipirinhas were riffs on common whiskey cocktails, often with lots of vermouth, at Guarita Mr. Ponce often creates cocktails that show the spirit’s lighter side.

By The New York Times

One, made with cachaça, tonic water and simple syrup, also included turmeric and Rangpur lime and was garnished with the herb rue, known in Brazil as arruda — a nod, popular among the city’s bartenders, to the country’s incredible botanical richness. In São Paulo, I also had cocktails made with the leaves of the pitanga tree, tonka beans (known as cumaru), and the bulbous yellow-orange fruit of the cashew tree, called caju. I also encountered at least three different lime varieties in frequent use, which made decoding which particular variety was in which particular cocktail, maddening. For reference: the standard-issue green Persian lime is the limão-tahiti, the Rangpur lime goes either by limão-capeta or limão-cravo, while a limão-galego is a key lime.

Overall, bartenders say they are eager to craft cocktails that are distinctly Brazilian. However, there are some challenges that are inherent to working with cachaça.

One is that beyond the caipirinha and another cocktail, recently resurgent, called a Rabo de Galo (meaning Tail of the Rooster, or cocktail) that is made from cachaça, vermouth and a bitter, Brazil lacks an indigenous cocktail culture, said Spencer Amereno Jr., the head bartender at Frank Bar in the Maksoud Plaza hotel.

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“We are creating a way to mix cachaça,” he said of the city’s ascendant class of craft bartenders. “It is hard because there is no tradition of mixing cachaça in cocktails, unlike in the U.S., which, for example, has had the book ‘How to Mix Drinks’ since 1862.”

At Frank Bar, Mr. Amereno said he turns to classic cocktails to think of how to use cachaça best. However, that doesn’t mean he’s merely recreating the classics with the native spirit.

“I don’t use the simple thinking: I’ll substitute cachaça for bourbon. I like to put tradition in typical Brazilian cocktails,” he said.

For example, for the version of the Rabo de Galo that he made me he turned to the Manhattan for inspiration. The result, made with oak-aged Leblon Signature Merlet cachaça (known in the United States as Leblon Reserva Especial), two sweet vermouths (Carpano Antica and Noilly Prat) and Angostura bitters, was rich and a bit sultry.

In working with cachaça, Mr. Amereno said, he also must confront perceptions by Brazilians that the spirit, and the cocktails traditionally made from it, are low-quality and unsophisticated.

“We have a number of Brazilian customers who think cachaça is harsh and they don’t like it. I try to surprise them and put value in cocktails with cachaça,” he said.

Nonetheless, it takes only a quick glance at the menus of many cocktail bars, where drinks made from gin and whiskey vastly outnumber those made from cachaça, to understand how far the native spirit has to go before it reaches the prominence of its globalized brethren.

That doesn’t mean you have to shun cachaça in its more traditional iteration of the caipirinha. Far from a relic of a less sophisticated era or an embarrassing marker of an out-of-touch bar and an uninventive bartender, when done properly the caipirinha can capture the qualities the city’s top bartenders are striving for, being both distinctly Brazilian and a showcase of skill. It was a point made clearly when, on my last full day in São Paulo, I found myself 45 minutes from the city center at the restaurant Mocotó, a haven of Northeastern Brazilian cuisine that is so celebrated that it not only spawned more recommendations than any other place in my travels around the city, but also has inspired an haute cuisine spinoff called Esquina Mocotó.

The original remains humble, and when I walked up to the bar with Marcello Gaya, the Leblon brand ambassador, I had the option of ordering various caipirinhas made from an assortment of the fresh fruit that makes Brazil a produce-lover’s paradise.

At Mr. Gaya’s suggestion, I went with a caipirinha três limões, or a three-lime caipirinha, which includes as citrus the Persian lime, the Rangpur lime and lemon (or limão-siciliano) and was one of the first caipirinha variations to make it big, Mr. Gaya said. When it arrived, it was exquisite — hitting a perfect balance of booze, acid and sweetness achieved by only the best daiquiris (both drinks rely on the same tricky balance of flavors and like the daiquiri, the caipirinha is often served too sweet).

“That’s their knowledge, the muddling, they have different fruit every day, some days this is sweeter,” Mr. Gaya said holding up a Rangpur lime, “some days more acidic, so you have to know what you are doing.”

Bryce T. Bauer is the author of “Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots” (Chicago Review Press).

A version of this article appears in print on October 8, 2017, on Page TR7 of the New York edition with the headline: On the Cocktail Trail, a Spirit Gets Frisky. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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The 10 Best Cocktails with Cachaça - Brazil's favourite liquor

cachaca cocktail

drink made of Cachaça

Preparation: Mix the cachaca and juice in a shot glass and serve straight. In some places the juice is replaced by a slice of cashew, which is placed on the tonque and swallowed together with a shot of Cachaça.

Preparation: First mix milk with the condensed milk until it blends. Add Cachaça and let it rest in the refrigerator. Add the cocoa licor right before serving.

cachaca, the Brazilian national spirit

Preparation: Mix the sugar and fruit slices in a mixing glass and squeeze to have juice, add ice, guava juice and Cachaça, mix again. Serve in a highball glass.

Preparation: Shake with ice and pour into a cocktail glass with crushed ice.

Preparation: Shake all ingredients well over ice cubes in a shaker. Serve in a highball glass, filled with crushed ice.

Preparation: mixing and serving in a shot glass

Preparartion: The sugar is first caramelized with the spices, ginger and the peels. This mixture is then boiled with water, approx. 10 minutes, then the Cachaça is added and boiled for approx. another 5 minutes. Serve in a mug.

Preparation: Blend all ingredients together with ice in a shaker or blender. Serve in a poco grande glass (or highball glass) over crushed ice and garnish with a pineapple wedge.

Preparation: Shake (or blend if using chunks of fresh fruits) all ingedients and serve over ice (in a highball, oldfashioned or martini glass).

Caipirinha

Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail

Preparation: Put the lime in an oldfashioned glass and add the sugar. Squeeze the limes with a muddler (called 'bastonete' or 'pilão'), so the juice mixes with the sugar. Then, fill up the glass with crushed ice and add the Cachaça. Serve the caipirinha with 2 short straws. Saúde !

Cachaca-based cocktail recipes

Place all ingredients into a blender. Blend well, pour into a wine glass, and serve.

Blend with 1 cup of ice until smooth and pour into a wine glass.

Combine ingredients in a blender. Strain into a large highball glass over crushed ice, and serve.

Pour over crushed ice in a large highball glass. Stir, and serve.

Pour over crushed ice in a large highball glass. Stir, and serve.

Blend well and add crushed ice.

Combine ingredients in a blender. Strain into a large highball glass over crushed ice, and serve.

4 oz fresh chopped mangos

Place all ingredients into a blender. Blend well, pour into a wine glass, and serve.

Place all ingredients into a blender. Blend well, pour into a wine glass, and serve.

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a lime wheel, and serve.

10 small, sliced mangos

Add small slices of mango to a hurricane glass. Pour the cachaca, banana liqueur and mango juice in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well, and strain into the glass. Add the Kahlua coffee liqueur. Garnish with a sliced banana and a cherry, and serve.

Muddle the sugar into the lime wedges in an old-fashioned glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes. Pour the cachaca into the glass. Stir well.

Blend ingredients together with crushed ice in a shaker or blender. Pour into a large highball glass over crushed ice, and serve.

Shake well over ice cubes in a shaker, and strain into a large highball glass. Fill with crushed ice, and serve.

Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Pour over crushed ice in a fancy glass.

Shake with ice. Strain.

Shake with ice and pour into a tumbler with crushed ice.

Shake cachaca and juice with ice, and pour into a collins glass. Add galliano, and serve.

Shake well over crushed ice in a shaker, and strain into a large highball glass over crushed ice. Serve.

MAISON LEBLON

Destilaria Maison Leblon is a fully-integrated craft distillery exclusively owned by and producing only Leblon Cachaça.

Delicious cocktail recipes made with Leblon Cachaça, Maison Leblon Reserva Especial and Cedilla Liqueur de Açai.

CRAFTING THE CAIPIRINHA

The National Cocktail of Brazil, the Caipirinha [kai-pur-EEN-ya] has become a favorite worldwide.

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MAISON LEBLON

Maison Leblon’s philosophy is that a great cachaça is made in the cane field first.

Just like a great French wine, LeblonВ® treats its cane with the utmost respect and care, ensuring that the final product represents everything that this fruit has to offer.

Leblon' S В® dedicated team of cane cutters cuts each stalk by hand with a machete.

The fresh-cut sugar cane is quickly transported to the distillery, where whole stalks are pressed into fresh sugar cane juice, called caldo de cana.

Unlike other cachaça distilleries, which increase the force of their pressing to maximize juice yield, the Maison Leblon gently presses the cane to extract only the best-tasting sensorial qualities from the cane stalks.

Like the production of the eau-de-vie for cognac or Scotch whiskies, Leblon' S ® alambique cachaça is made via the traditional batch method in copper potstills.

The cachaça rests in French oak casks previously used in France to age XO Cognac for up to six months, polishing the spirit without altering the fruity cane nose.

After aging, the cachaça is ready for assembly. Master Distiller Gilles Merlet and Carlos Eduardo Oliveira combine the various batches to build a complex flavor in terms of sensory attributes.

The Destilaria Maison Leblon is located in Patos de Minas, an agricultural town in the western highlands of Minas Gerais, the heart of sugar cane country and is a fully-integrated craft distillery exclusively owned by and producing only Leblon® Cachaça.

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“The full body and lingering, almost crystalline sweetness will add polish to your caipirinha.”

- Wine & Spirits Magazine

“Leblon: The Champagne of Cane.”

— Valor Econômico, São Paulo, Brazil

“This bouquet oozes authenticy and a sense of place. It’s in the palate entry that the first burst of sugarcane sweetness emerges and that’s a welcome development.”

—F. Paul Pacult

“Rich and complex on the palate with citrus, cucumber, lime and a pleasant oil note; long smooth citrus finish.”

“Cachaça, the essence of Brazil in a bottle, catches fire in the USA. Try Leblon, an ultra-premium Cachaça distilled in Brazil and lightly aged in cognac casks.”

“Cachaça is the next Tequila, and Leblon is its first high-end brand.”

-The Wall Street Journal

#LIV E LOV E LEBLON

©2015 leblon cachaça. product of brazil. imported by leblon usa coral gables, fl.

Cachaça Cocktails

I'm just back from a week gallivanting (occasionally by helicopter) through the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, so while I get my notes together, here are a couple of mighty tasty cachaça cocktails created by my colleague Nick Fauchald. Both are ideal for that moment when the usual caiparinha just seems too darn familiar, or when you're feeling wildly inspired after reading my May story on Brazil and cachaça.

8 red, seedless grapes

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 ounces cachaça

Small bunch of grapes, for garnish

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the grapes and lime with the sugar. Fill the shaker with ice and add the cachaca. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a small bunch of grapes.

2 ounces cachaça

3/4 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce fresh grapefruit juice

Grapefruit twist, for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the cachaça, St-Germain, lime juice and grapefruit juice. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Cachaca

Cachaça cocktails have become increasingly popular across the globe in the last couple of years due to the much better availability of well known brands, such as Leblon and Sagatiba. Cocktails with cachaça such as the Batida have been popular in Brazil, the birthplace of Cachaça, for many years but now Cachaça cocktails such as the Caipirinha are competing with cocktails like the Mojito, such is its popularity.Cachaça cocktails also include more less known Brazilian creations such as the Leite de Onca and Caju Amigo. Cocktails with cachaça such as the Caipirinha will undoubtedly come more into focus with the upcoming Rio World Cup and Olympic Games.

Spiced Pear Caiprini

Ingredients List

50 ml Leblon Cachaca

50 ml Pear Nectar

12 1/2 ml Lemon Juice

slice of Ginger

pinch of Nutmeg

pinch of Cinnamon

Did you know?

The pear was cultivated by the Romans but they did not eat them raw, they used to stew them with honey.

Find out how to make me!

Ingredients List

Peel of 2 Oranges and a Lime

Cloves and Cinnamon to taste

Did you know?

Quentao is a hot Brazilian drink made of Cachaca and is often served during Festa Junina.

Find out how to make me!

Rabo-de-Galo

Ingredients List

Did you know?

Leblon Cachaca is a luxury brand of cachaca and the name Leblon refers to an affluent area in Rio de Janeiro.

Find out how to make me!

Raspberry Bellini

Ingredients List

50 ml Leblon Cachaca

dash of Lime Juice

2 teaspoons Superfine Sugar

top with Champagne

Did you know?

Leblon Cachaca is a luxury brand of cachaca and the name Leblon refers to an affluent area in Rio de Janeiro.

Find out how to make me!

Raspberry Caipirinha

Ingredients List

50 ml Leblon Cachaca

dash of Lime Juice

2 tablespoon Superfine Sugar

Did you know?

99% of cachaca is consumed in Brazil, with 1% being exported.

Find out how to make me!

Passion Fruit Caipirinha

Ingredients List

20 ml Sugar Syrup

1 passion fruit

1 whole quartered Lime

Did you know?

Passion fruit is known to have a slight sedative effect.

Find out how to make me!

Peach Batida

Ingredients List

50 ml Peach Puree

20 ml Lime Juice

25 ml Condensed Milk

Did you know?

There are over 700 varieties of peaches.

Find out how to make me!

Melancia Sour

Ingredients List

37 1/2 ml Cachaca

12 1/2 ml Lemon Grass Syrup

12 1/2 ml Lime Juice

37 1/2 ml Water Melon Juice

Did you know?

Melancia is Portuguese for Watermelon.

Find out how to make me!

Maracuja Batida

Ingredients List

20 ml Lemon Juice

20 ml Sugar Syrup

2 Passion Fruit

Did you know?

In Portuguese Batida means shaken or milkshake.

Find out how to make me!

Leite de Onca

Ingredients List

40 ml Cocoa Liqueur

40 ml Condensed Milk

Did you know?

This is a cold Brazilian drink whose literal translation is "Jaguar Milk".

Find out how to make me!

Citrus Caipirinha

Ingredients List

20 ml Sugar Syrup

Did you know?

CaipirItaly is a variation from Italy, which use campari instead of the cachaca.

Find out how to make me!

Caipirinha

Ingredients List

1 teaspoon Brown Sugar

Did you know?

The word Caipirinha is a diminutive version of the word caipira, which refers to someone from the countryside.

Find out how to make me!

Caju Amigo

Ingredients List

15 ml Cashew Juice

Did you know?

Unlike other nuts and seeds, the cashew does not grow within the fruit but instead on the outside of it, hanging from the base of a crab apple called a "cashew apple".

Find out how to make me!

Brazilian Sangria

Ingredients List

12 1/2 ml Absinthe

12 1/2 ml Spainish Brandy

12 1/2 ml Orange Liqueur

Did you know?

The language of Brazil is Portuguese.

Find out how to make me!

Berry Caipirinha

Ingredients List

20 ml Sugar Syrup

2 quarters of lime

Did you know?

This drink is often voted the best alternative to the classic Caipirinha.

Find out how to make me!

Ingredients List

25 ml Fruit Juice

1 teaspoon Sugar

Did you know?

In Rio de Janeiro, Batidas are traditionally served with the Brazilian national dish, feijoada.

Find out how to make me!

Abaci Batida

Ingredients List

75 ml Pineapple Juice,12 1/2 ml Lemon Juice

5 ml Sugar Syrup

Did you know?

Pineapples were named as such by European explorers as they found flesh to be like an apple and the appearance similar to a pinecone.

Find out how to make me!

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