Brazil’s national cocktail, Caipirinha (which means little country girl in Portuguese) is made with just three ingredients, shaken and served over ice.
Ingredients:
- 1 lime cut into rough cubes and a couple of slices
- 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 65 ml cachaƧa
- A good handful of cracked ice
Step by step:
- Put the lime cubes in a cocktail shaker (or sturdy glass tumbler) and crush them with a muddler or end of a small rolling pin. Extract as much lime juice as you can, then add and dissolve the sugar.
- Add the cachaƧa and a little ice. Give it a stir and serve over ice with a slice of lime and a swizzle stick to stir.
Many years ago the old remedy for treating a fever was to hold a cloth moistened with alcohol to your forehead whilst sucking a lime. One day, a man who found the taste too bitter added a spoonful of sugar and hey presto the caipirinha was born. It also goes to prove the saying – a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
CachaƧa (pronounced ka-sha-sa) is the national alcoholic drink of Brazil. Like rum, it is a sugar cane spirit. However cachaƧa is distilled from fermented sugar cane juice rather than from the molasses. Originally a poor man’s drink and given the slang name pinga from the Portuguese pingar, meaning to drip referring to the distillation process.
It is a clear strong spirit with a grassy flavour and recently the production of mature cachaƧa aged in wooden barrels has become popular. This gives a rounded more mellow flavour with notes of cinnamon, vanilla and dried fruits and makes an ideal alternative after dinner drink such as brandy or whiskey.
HEAL 