017 – Caipirinha

A Sydney ‘lock-down’ version of Brazil’s national cocktail, the ‘Caipirinha’.

Sydney’s Covid Lockdown has inspired me to explore this famous Brazilian cocktail. Let’s take a look at this refreshing national drink, using a typical Caipirinha recipe, as well as a ‘Raspberry’ twist.

Make your own Locktail, the Brazilian ‘Caipirinha’. Here is my Sydney Lock-Tail recipe:

METHOD — Slice a fresh (and washed) lime into small wedges (I prefer very small, around ten to twelve wedges) and place in glass with 20gm sugar (usually white cane, although I prefer brown or demerara), muddle until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Fill glass with crushed or small pieces of ice. Add 60ml of Cachaça and stir the glass. Drink cold. FOR RASPBERRY OPTION: Prior to adding the Cachaça, add 30ml raspberry syrup. (Make raspberry syrup by muddling 8 raspberries with 50gm sugar and 30ml water in a pot while bringing it to a light simmer, take off heat and let sit for an hour or two, strain out solids and chill. Should make enough syrup for at least two cocktails – over 60ml).

HISTORICAL NOTES – Cachaça is the core spirit for the Caipirinha cocktail. Cachaça has been around in Brazil since the 1500’s. Like Rum, it is made from sugar cane, but unlike Rum, it is the fresh-pressed juice rather than the molasses, and aged in vats of indigenous Brazilian wood.

The exact origin of the Caipirinha is unknown, however the most commonly accepted history is that it appeared as a medicated tonic in an attempt to fight the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 which killed between 35,000 and 100,000 Brazilians. Cachaça was mixed with limes, garlic, honey and other herbs in an attempt to fight the Flu and other illnesses, although this remedy may have existed prior to the Spanish Flu outbreak. Eventually this tonic became the Caipirinha, and Brazil’s national cocktail. It is law in Brazil that if the drink does not contain Cachaça and limes (sometimes called Lemons in South America), then it cannot use the name Caipirinha.

There are competing histories that claim the Caipirinha existed as a ‘high status’ drink for the parties of Brazilian land-owners much earlier, during the 1800’s. It is possible that both origin stories are true, and in any case, this cocktail has been around since the early 1900’s and enjoyed around the world today.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Caipirinha’ in on the International Bartender Association (IBA)’s ‘Contemporary Clasics’ list. The IBA recipe is here, and is almost exactly as published above, except for the specification of 4-teaspoons of white cane sugar.

There are also in Brazil (and elsewhere) versions that include the addition of fruit including passion-fruit, kiwi-fruit, strawberries, pineapple, tangerine, mango, lemon and Brazilian natives cajá and caju.

TASTING NOTES – In a cocktail such as this, the Cachaça tastes somewhere between Vodka and Tequila, with some significant flavour imparted by the wood-vat maturation. Cachaça can be as varied in flavour as any other spirit. With the lime and sugar it is reminiscent of cocktails like the Margarita and Mojito, but with its own distinctive taste.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – So refreshing, there really is no need to change anything. Add some fresh fruit if that works for you, and I have given an option for a ‘Raspberry’ variant in the recipe above. My only personal change is to use a more flavorsome sugar than simple white sugar, and I think brown sugar works incredibly well with limes, as long as you are OK with a darker looking final cocktail.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is the 7th of the 1900-1910 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. See the full list in the index.