Alcademics.com

The Lazy Caipirinha

Oh, Caipirinhas. So much muddling, so much effort. Who has the time? I created a short cut with lime-flavored water and sugar poured into a shot glass ice mold.

Cachaca Intensive

A couple weeks ago, I attended a cachaca intensive with Minister of Rum Ed Hamilton and Cabana cachaca distiller Cesar Cestari. Here is some of what I learned.

Up to six grams per liter of sugar may be added to cachaca without declaring it on the label. Between six and fifteen grams is then called sweet cachaca and you can find it on the labels of Brazilian brands as "cachaca adocada."

Most cachaca (like 90%) is made in column stills, and most of it has sugar added. Multiple column stills allow you to remove more congeners than a single-column still. Cachaca must be bottled at between 38 and 48 percent alcohol by volume.

June through December are the distillation months. At the Cabana distillery, they double distill cachaca in pot stills, but do it in a way I've never heard of before. During the harvest season, they distill all the fermented sugar cane juice just once and store it in large vats. The don't even cut the heads and tails at this point. This stabilizes the liquid, as sugar cane quickly goes bad like an apple that turns brown after you take a bite.

After they're done distilling sugar cane for the year, they mix the low-alcohol spirit together for consistency and do the second distillation. Then afterward, they add water and let it marry for a couple months before bottling.

 Brazilian woods are harder than American/French oak and impart less flavor. There are tons of different woods in which cachaca is aged.

Cane grown for sugar is all about yield, whereas for cachaca it's all about quality. In different parts of Brazil, different types of sugar cane are grown best suited locally to make cachaca. Sugar cane grows in clumps. After you cut it down one year, the clumps become thicker and thicker. Every five years or so, they dig up the clumps and plant new sugar cane (just pieces of old cane) to start the process over.

Cachaca 51, or Pirassununga, is the third largest spirit brand in the world. There are 4000 brands of cachaca and about 30,000 producers. 1.3 billion liters of cachaca are distilled each year.

Molasses-based rums have a high sulfur content, so you need to age even the clear ones to take the edge off.

In order for cachaca to be called aged cachaca (meaning more than one year in wood), only half of the stuff in the bottle has to be aged for that long.

Rum expert Ed Hamilton, Cabana brand owner Matti Anttila, Cabana distiller Cesar Cestari.

Also, there's a great cachaca quiz here at the Ministry of Rum. Test what you learned in this blog entry.

Clashaca!

Of all the competitions between all the spirits brands, there is no more heated battle than the one for dominance of the cachaca market. Cachaca, Brazilian rum made from sugar cane (instead of molasses) is the ingredient in the Caipirinha, the drink many people are banking on to become the "next Mojito."

But first there are some problems. Though there are thousands of cachacas in Brazil, and most Americans don't know what cachaca is, what it's supposed to taste like, or how to pronounce it. Thus, brands trying to gain market share in America have to do a lot of education to get consumers familiar with it. That means a lot of ads, a lot of education programs, a lot of free drinks, and a lot of money spent. And it's so very, very fun to watch.

The big three spenders are Leblon, Sagatiba, and Cabana; each of them taking different approaches to battle. So, let's see who's winning!

ADS:
 
Sagatiba has trippy flower power ads that say fun! Cabana has not-safe-for-work and uber-present sexy ads that say sex! Leblon has ads that are green.

I actually like the Sagatiba ads best but in this contest the winner is obviously Cabana.

WEBSITE:

Cabana's website has a groovy beat to it, but takes a million years to load and the navigation is all but useless. Sagatiba's website has great navigation, it loads fast, and is fairly entertaining. Leblon's website is sort of cluttered and it takes you to a whole bunch of other websites. One of those is NarenAndJacobGoToLeblonBeach.com, probably the longest domain name you ever want to type.

The clear winner is Sagatiba.

MULTI-MEDIA:

Sagatiba has a whole bunch of Brazilian artists featured on their website, as does Lebon in the NarenEtc.com video. But as far as I can tell, they're not collaborating. Cabana is collaborating with fashion house Iodice, which is doing limited edition t-shirts and bags.

But one brand has their own song and music video that not only indoctrinates you into the brand but it teaches you how to pronounce "Caipirinha" by saying it 6,000 times. Winner: Leblon. 

SWAG:

 

Sagatiba has this magnificent industrial grade muddler they give out to bartenders. It's like the Rolls Royce of muddlers, all black and shiny chrome. It is gorgeous. Cabana, on the other hand, has a rugged-looking dark wood, laser-etched muddler that's probably the best I own (since Sagatiba hasn't shared the good stuff with me). However! Leblon will give anybody a free muddler ($2.00 shipping and handling) here.

Free swag for everybody? The winner is Leblon.

BRAND EXTENSIONS:

Sagatiba already has an aged expression out. I doubt that's in the cards for either Leblon or Cabana, but you never know. Leblon was also talking about a Caipirinha mix a year ago but I haven't seen it. This round goes to Sagatiba.

WINNER:

Are you kidding? There is no winner! This is an ongoing battle. Stay tuned for more exciting updates from the great battle we call CLASHACA!

Glossy Booze: November Edition

Glossy Booze is a round-up of cocktails and spirits stories in magazines.

Men's Journal has this story on the increasing popularity and price of bourbon, along with some recommendations by Wayne Curtis, a few recommended brands of merlot, and a review of The Wettest County in the World.

The December issue of Men's Journal is also out, and has a recipe for the Midnight Manhattan,  a mention of Palo Santo Marron as a good winter brew, an endorsement of Three Thieves Bandit wine in the box as "adventure-ready wine," and a list of "Top Shelf Hooch" including Bluecoat Gin, Vodka 14, Nouvelle-Orleans Absinthe, and Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey.

In San Francisco's 7x7 Magazine, Jordan Mackay lists some steak-pairing red wines, and feature's Jennifer Colliau's Small Hand Foods, her vintage syrup business.

In Details, Rob Willey has a story on eggnog, with some recommended products to put in it- Remy Martin CROP cognac, Old Forrester Signature 100-proof bourbon, Brugal Anejo rum, and El Dorado 15-year-old rum.

Esquire is also on the rum kick, with David Wondrich telling us about how rum ages faster in the hot environments, and recommends a few to try: Clement Cuvee Homere, Angostura 1824, and English Harbour 10-year-old Reserve.

And finally, Bon Appetit has a slew of stories: A recipe for the Algonquin Bar Punch, some suggested champagnes, a fun list on what drinks cost around the world, a recipe for Christmas Caipirinhas (with ginger, ginger beer, and mint added to the usual mix), and a whole vintage cocktail party feature with food and old-style drinks.

Also from the Bon Appetit website, check out these pictures of bartenders in New York making the Blue Blazer.

So much for Nutrisweet Caipirinhas

Brazil has set official rules for how the Caipirinha should be made. The information in the story is light so I'm not sure if there are more rules than these, but it does mention that there must be at least one percent crushed lime and "real sugar".

Perhaps there are repercussions- I have heard in Brazil you get a Splenda/Nutrisweet option, and I wonder if pre-bottled Caipirinha mix has the proper form of "crushed lime."

Then again, in a country with a reported 30,000 distilleries, most of them illegal, it's hard to think that anybody will really care what the rules are. Party on, Brazil!

More Cachaca Recipes

I think the cachaca category is too tied to the Caipirinha, but I probably think that because the Caipirinha is a lousy drink. There I said it.

But I love cacacha and am always thrilled to see something other than the Caipirinha made with it on drink menus. Coming to my rescue is Naren Young, a New York-based writer/bartender. He wrote this little ditty on the Top Five Cachaca Cocktails.

Included in the list is the Caipirinha de Uva, a drink I've had and loved several times in different places. There is also the Pearl Button by John Deragon, which sounds easy and delightful, and a version of the Bloody Mary called the Bloody Carioca. I had a different version of a cachaca based Bloody Mary, which sounds disgusting- and I loved it.

I just wanted to draw your attention to these other options because I'm so very glad to have them myself.

Happy ads

In cachaca ads, Leblon is celebrating Brazil and beaches, Cabana is selling sex, and I'm not sure what these Sagatiba  ads are selling but I like them because they're pretty and happy.