Making a Caipirinha

I filmed this at one of my favorite diners in São Paulo.

People say the secret is in the sugar. However, I think the mistake most people make is using expensive cachaça. The best cipirinhas are made with the less expensive, sometimes under $4 a fifth, cachaça. I've made this many times with sugar from the US an there is no difference, other than it's fun to make it with the superfine Brazilian sugar!

The caipirinha is a national cocktail of Brazil, and is enjoyed in restaurants, bars, and many households throughout the country. Once almost unknown outside Brazil, the drink has become more popular and more widely available in recent years, in large part due to the rising availability of first-rate brands of cachaça outside Brazil. The International Bartenders Association has designated it as one of their Official Cocktails.

The word "caipirinha" is the diminutive version of the word "caipira", which refers to someone from the countryside, being an almost exact equivalent of the American English hillbilly. The word may be used as either a masculine or a feminine noun, but when referring to this drink it is only feminine (usage of diminutives is common in Brazil). However, a Brazilian hardly ever thinks of a "country person" when ordering a "Caipirinha". In the Brazilian vocabulary, the word "Caipirinha" is mostly associated with the drink itself.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Caipirinha
• São Paulo
• how to make
• latin cocktail
• mohito
• margarita

[Arroyo2000]

Scott, try making the US sugar into a simple syrup before using, makes it less grainy on the bottom.