Since returning from Germany, Darren and I have been serving our friends (and ourselves) more than a few caipirinhas.
Mmmmm, mmmmm! That's some tasty Brazilian cocktail!
Caipirinhas are made with cachaça, a close cousin of rum that's produced by fermenting sugar cane juice. Cachaça sort of tastes like a cross between rum and tequila, and at 38-48% alcohol by volume, it packs a hefty punch.
The first time I ever heard of a caipirinha was while watching the delightfully odd cooking show Two Fat Ladies. Clarissa and Jennifer stopped at the Brazilian embassy in London, where a bartender served Jennifer what is known as the official drink of Brazil. We got to watch him muddle the limes and sugar, and then top if off with the powerful liquor.
It wasn't until nearly ten years later that I first tried a caipirinha. I was on vacation in San Francisco with Darren, and we went to a very cool restaurant called The Slanted Door in the Ferry Building. (Oddly enough, The Slanted Door is featured in the video demo of Apple's new Mobile Me service. I love Apple.)
Anyway, I saw the drink on the cocktail menu and remembered it from the Two Fat Ladies, so I ordered one. I liked it so well that I ended up ordering three over the next hour and a half. The rest of the night is something of a blur.
The next time I had a caipirinha was last month in Berlin, where the drink is so common and popular that the Berliners even have a shortened nickname for them, "Caipi." We guzzled them from one end of the city to another.
Once we got back to the USA, we quickly turned our attention to finding a liquor store near our home that sells cachaça. To our surprise, that proved very easy. Since then we've tinkered with perfecting a recipe, trying different types of sugar and different brands of cachaça.
Last week, Darren perfected the recipe (at least in our humble opinions), and I'm happy to share it with you today.
Darren's Knock-You-on-Your Butt Caipirinha
- 2 ounces cachaça.
- 1/2 fresh lime, cut into four wedges
- 2 tsp. Muscovado sugar (or granulated raw sugar if you can't find Musovado--we found it in an upscale grocery store)
Place lime and sugar into old fashioned glass and muddle (mash the two ingredients together using muddler or a wooden spoon). Fill the glass with crushed ice and add the cachaça. If the drink is too strong for you on its own, top with a bit of club soda or 7-Up.
Dazzle and intoxicate your friends with this tasty treat. A few years from now, when caipirinhas are being sold in nasty canned versions like mojitos are today, you'll pity the common folk who don't know any better.
Have a great weekend!
~WG
PS. And yes, I'm drinking one now. At work. And it appears that I've misplaced my pants.
Since it's too rainy to mow the lawn and we're having a pre-wedding open house on Wednesday, I think I'm going to pop on over to the NH liquor store and get me some cachaça. If guests drink enough and look at our lawn, they'll think they really are in the Brazilian jungle.
Posted by: Mel | June 16, 2008 at 11:07 AM
There are also many variants, if you substitute different liquors or fruits. If you use vodka, it's a Caipiroska. After running out of limes, I found that substituting lemons works great! I think the key is that the fruit be sour and juicy.
Posted by: Darren | June 13, 2008 at 08:35 AM