Caipirinha
It’s World Cup time again! This is a magical time that happens every four years, and for those of us who are footie fanatics, it’s like Christmas, only better. Seriously, it lasts an entire month, not just a day. As this year’s festival of footie is taking place in Brazil, I thought it was only right for us to celebrate with one of their most famous cocktails: the Caipirinha. Cachaça, lime and sugar – simple, easy, tasty!
First things first, the cachaça. Basically, you can think about it like rum as they both come from sugarcanes. The biggest difference is that rum comes from the byproduct of sugar production (molasses) and cachaça gets fresh sugarcane juice. They’re cousins.
The only other tricky thing here comes from the sugar – many recipes call for white, or superfine, sugar. Myself, I prefer to go with a turbinado sugar. It’s less refined, tastes more like sugarcane (I always enjoy doubling down on flavor combos when I can), but doesn’t dissolve as easily. Here’s your protip for the day: squeeze a lime into the turbinado sugar, pop it in the microwave until it dissolves and cool. Now you have the best simple syrup you’ve ever tasted!
Muddle those lime quarters with your simple syrup, pour on the cachaça and ice, then sit back, relax and enjoy some quality World Cup action!
- 1 lime
- 1 tbs. sugar
- 2 ozs. cachaça
- Crushed ice
- Glass type: Old-fashioned
- Cut up a lime into quarters.
- Muddle the lime quarters in a rocks glass with sugar.
- Add Cachaça and top with ice.
- Stir and serve.
