Month: February 2009

  • Caipirinha – Carioca for a Week

    Sipping a Caipirinha truly makes you feel like a Brazilian, if only for a short time.  The fresh lime flavor, sweetness and grassy flavor of the cachaça meld in to a truly wonderful drink.  The flavor is extremely refreshing, not unlike a slightly alcoholic limeade.  Not to mention these drinks are exceedingly drinkable.  That said,…

  • Cachaça – Brazilian Rum?

    You’ll note that on every bottle of cachaça you buy in the US there is a sublabel listing it as Brazilian Rum.  It’s not a coincidence or marketing gimmick.  Rather this is a requirement of the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).  The TTB in their own words defines a rum as: Spirits…

  • Muddle or Shake?

    The question has plagued mankind since the development of the Caipirinha.  Should one muddle the cocktail or shake?  It’s the kind of question fights have been started over.  Well, I couldn’t let this dilemma go unsolved any longer.  So I mixed up a Caipirinha show down for the benefit of all of us. Caipirinha (Shaken)…

  • Carnaval!

    Today is the day folks.  Whether you think of it as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shove Tuesday, Pancake Day or, as the Brazilians know it, Carnaval, today is a day to celebrate.  For you Catholics out there today marks the last day before the beginning of Lent.  Lent refers to both the 40 day period…

  • Caipirinha

    This week, and specifically Tuesday, is Carnaval in Brazil and to celebrate I’m featuring Brazil’s national drink, the Caipirinha.  The Caipirinha [KIE-PEE-REEN-YAH] is a fairly simple drink consisting of only cachaça [KA-SHA-SA], limes and sugar muddled together to create what Gary Regan lovingly refers to as “an elixir.”  Sounds fantastic to me, sign me up.…