With the world cup starting, we wanted to give you an insight about a Brazilian specialty, the cachaça. While cachaça is made, as the rum, from the sugarcane, Brazilians have fought to bring its specificities into light, especially with the USA who finally accepted in 2012 to label it as cachaça and not “Brazilian rum” as it used to. It can now be produced only in Brazil.
First, the process : cachaça is always made of juice extracted from freshly pressed sugarcane, a mixture called garapa. This practice comes from the colonial plantations’ slaves. After fermentation, the product is distilled at 40% Alcohol by volume (ABV) and bottled directly.
Rum, on the other hand, which can be made from cane juice by Carribean Islands like Trinidad or Martinique under the name “Rhum Agricole”, is mostly made from molasse, sugar residues and concentrates. It is also distilled at a higher ABV : 65% to 75% then brought back to commercial levels, from 40% to 60%.
Cachaça is also one of the few alcohols that is aged in other wood varieties than oak. In fact, Brazilians combine the diversities of their soils and sugarcanes that grow on them, making the cachaça a terroir product such as wine, with the usage of various local and exotic wood essences : amburana, jequitibá, ipê, tapinhoã, balsam and up to twenty-four others !
We arrive now to the final place of dispute between cachaça and rum : the bar. While rum has known a growing popularity with the Mojito becoming the top-one cocktail, cachaça is not far behind with the Caipirinha, the most famous Brazilian cocktail. Both are mixed with lime and sugar, with extra mint for the Mojito.
You can try these in a classic way, but be an inventive judge with MONIN ! Why not a Mojito flavoured with Le Fruit de MONIN or a Spicy Caipirinha, that is a tough choice for sure…
Featured recipes :
Spicy Caipi
20 ml MONIN Spicy syrup
½ lime cut in dices
40 ml cachaça
Muddle the lime and syrup
Fill glass with crushed ice
Add the cachaça, stir and serve
You can replace the MONIN Spicy with any Le Fruit de MONIN flavour (except Coco or Banana) with the same quantity
30 ml Le Fruit de MONIN
½ lime cut in dices
10 mint leaves
40 ml rum
Soda water
Muddle lime, mint leaves and Le Fruit de MONIN.
Fill glass with crushed ice
Add rum and top with soda water
Stir and serve
Source : Mapa Da Cachaça
