Cachaça - the new rum?
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- Cachaça Gives Rum
Drinkers New Horizons
- by Kyle McHugh
While relatively new to the United States, the Brazilian-
born sugarcane spirit cachaça (kuh-shaw’-suh) is making
a big splash with bartenders and bars in the know, and its
signature drink, the Caipirinha (ky-pee-reehn’-yuh), is
poised to become the next Mojito (I patently refuse to
sound this one out.) What makes this spirit so appetizing
to masterful mixologists? Cachaça has a light yet soulful
flavor that allows the spirit to mix well with many other
fresh ingredients and high-quality spirits, yet also has
enough backbone to stand alone as a “neat” or “rocks”
order.
Cachaça has its roots in Brazil during the mid-1500’s.
Sugarcane had been introduced here by European
explorers, and it didn’t take long for it to become a
dominating crop in the New World. Along with so many
agricultural products at this time, this also brought a
new life to slavery in this part of the world. Slaves would
often be rewarded with extra sugarcane juice that was
left over from that day’s milling process. They would
leave the sugarcane juice to ferment naturally from wild
yeasts, and a sweet-yet-alcoholic drink was invented.
From there, it was discovered that boiling this mixture
after fermentation (basically, distilling it) could lead to a
higher-proof spirit with less sweetness, and it was here
that true cachaça was born.
Long considered the drink of the slaves and lower
classes, cachaça remained as such for centuries, with the
wealthier classes opting for European-produced
Cognacs, sherries, and other spirits rather than the
essentially bathtub-produced local stuff. Modern
thought has brought changes though, as cachaça
production in Brazil has now reached approximately
350 million gallons, which (if not exported) would equal
about two gallons per person per year, regardless of age.
Luckily for the livers of our Brazilian neighbors, exports
have grown exponentially over the last few years.
Germany alone makes up ¼ of the export market. With
even more ambitious export strategies on deck in Brazil,
the hope is that cachaça and its accompanying
Caipirinha will be the next tequila and Margarita in
terms of synergy and global popularity.
As such, Brazil is going to great lengths to protect its
signature spirit from copycat producers, much as
Mexico has done with tequila and the U.S. has done with
bourbon. Brazil is working with the World Trade
Organization to ensure that the terms “cachaça” and
"Caipirinha” are used only with connection to Brazilian
products, as sugar-rich countries like Columbia and
Martinique have tried to produce cachaças of their own
for export to global markets.
By some counts, there are as many as 4,000 different
brands of cachaça available on the market; these
basically fall into two different expressions: aged or un-
aged. As with most spirits, “artisnal” cachaças are
usually made in pot stills and then aged in some form of
wooden barrel for smoothing and the addition of tertiary
flavor characteristics. “Industrial” cachaças are made in
column stills, and often are directly bottled and shipped
for consumption. Artisnal varieties have deeper, richer
flavors that are generally of a higher quality and good
for sipping straight or making fabulous cocktails, while
industrial styles are more appropriately mixed into
Caipirinhas and other mixed libations.
One thing is for certain – along with so much of the
Brazilian lifestyle that other countries find attractive,
cachaça and its accompanying Caipirinha have truly
found homes outside of South America, and they are
slowly helping people realize that there is much more
out there to drink than the typical Vodka-Soda or Gin
and Tonic.
popular premium
brand found in the U.S.
brand found in the U.S.
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