Caipirinha
Lime, cachaça, Brazilian soul.
Fresh lime muddled with sugar, cachaça and plenty of ice, all made right in the glass. The tart brightness of lime meets the grassy character of Brazil's sugarcane spirit in a simple, direct drink.
- IBA · Contemporary Classics
- Aperitif
- Muddled
- Glass
- Rocks glass
- Method
- Muddled
- Strength
- Strong
- Time
- 3 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Ice
- Crushed
Ingredients
Measures for 1 serving
-
Lime
1
-
White cane sugar
4 tsp
-
Cachaça
60 ml
Proportions
How to make
- Place the lime, cut into small wedges, in the glass.
- Add the sugar.
- Muddle the lime and sugar gently.
- Fill the glass with cracked ice.
- Pour the cachaça.
- Stir gently.
The story
Origins
ProbableA plausible account, without definitive proof.
The Caipirinha is regarded as Brazil's national cocktail and is generally linked to the interior of São Paulo state. Before it took this name there was "pinga com limão", cachaça with lime: as early as 1856 the town of Paraty handed it out during a cholera epidemic, and around 1880 an English traveller described a drink of cachaça, lemon, sugar and water. A widespread story claims it grew out of a folk remedy of lime, garlic and honey used during the 1918 Spanish flu, but period evidence is lacking. The name, which recalls the "caipira", a countryside dweller, was in use by the 1950s and became widespread in the late 1960s. From the 1980s the drink caught on in Europe.
Sources (4)
Taste profile
- Citrus
- 4 out of 5
- Sweet
- 3 out of 5
- Strong
- 3 out of 5
- Sour
- 3 out of 5
- Fresh
- 3 out of 5
