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The perfect caipirinha recipe: crushed ice or ice cubes? Brown sugar or white sugar? Here you'll find all the answers:
Caipirinha, probably the most famous cocktail in the world, is often copied but rarely matched! Beyond its fresh fruitiness, it wins you over with its sheer simplicity. Thanks to its popularity, though, plenty of things get sold as a “caipirinha” that have little to do with the original drink from Brazil – and that a Brazilian would probably only accept with a great deal of tolerance. Here, we want to reveal the secret of the original Brazilian recipe for this cult drink!
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For the original caipirinha recipe – the name, by the way, comes from the Brazilian “caipira” (country dweller) – white, refined sugar is used. The use of brown sugar in Germany (and some other countries) comes from the fact that the cane sugar sold there is usually brownish in colour and coarser.
Using the fine, white, refined cane sugar common in Brazil makes a real difference to the taste. It brings the flavour of sugar cane into the drink, which is often missing because of the industrially produced, unaged cachaças. The brown cane sugar in German bars (which is not infrequently coloured beet sugar!) is nothing but folklore.
The raw material for making cachaça is freshly harvested sugar cane – unlike rum, which is usually made from cane-sugar molasses. The name “cachaça” is a protected designation of origin in Brazil, so cachaça must always have been produced in Brazil.
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The alcohol content of cachaça is limited by law in Brazil to a maximum of 48% vol. and must be at least 38%. In Brazil, the regions best known for producing cachaça are primarily Alagoas, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco. There you'll find smaller farms producing the sugar-cane spirit by traditional hand craft. The young, freshly distilled spirit is usually still colourless, while yellow or gold hues point to an ageing process.
Cachaça is produced either industrially or traditionally and, in higher quality grades, aged in barrels. Native woods are used for ageing, giving the cachaça – and therefore the caipirinha – its own note. Better-quality cachaça is also served neat and can be offered as a digestif after the meal or an aperitif before it.
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For a caipirinha, in Germany limes cut into eighths are usually used, while in Brazil lime slices are the norm. Either way: when buying limes, make sure to choose unwaxed, untreated fruit. Nothing is more annoying than finding a good cachaça ruined by the bitter taste of sprayed limes!
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In Brazil, normal-sized ice cubes are used. This keeps the caipirinha fresher for longer. By contrast, the German bar scene mostly uses crushed ice. This has a larger surface area, so the ice melts faster and the cocktail chills more quickly – but also waters down faster.
about 6–8 cl cachaça
1.5 teaspoons white cane sugar
a glass full of ice cubes
1 lime
Cut a washed lime into 4 to 6 wedges and put them in a glass with 1 tsp of sugar. Then crush the sugar and limes with a wooden muddler to release the juice and aroma. Fill the glass completely with ice and then add the cachaça.
Note: because crushed ice takes up more room thanks to its broken-up surface, with that version you can happily fill the glass right to the brim with cachaça. If you use normal ice cubes, we recommend doing a test run first and adjusting the lime-to-spirit ratio to your taste.
Before serving, you can either mix the drink through with a shaker or gently lift the limes and cane sugar up from the bottom of the glass with a spoon.
An insider tip: the ingredients of this Brazilian drink can also become quite different creations, such as a delicious dessert version. Caipirinha cream is quick to make and a wonderful finish to any feast – a real tip from the Viventura recipe kitchen!
So, did your caipirinha turn out well? If the taste of Brazil on your tongue still isn't enough, why not take a look at Viventura's Brazil trips.
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