Cachaça

As I mentioned previously, the farmland of the state of São Paulo was once used for coffee production, but not any longer. But what is it being used for? Somewhat ironically, it is being used for exactly the same crop which the coffee originally displaced: sugar cane.

Whereas sugar cane was originally cultivated for the sugar which was back then exported to the hungry sweet-toothed European markets, it is now grown with an other purpose in mind: production of 85% ethanol (i.e. 170 proof alcohol) - primarily for the fuelling of cars on the home market, but I saw the basically same product used also as a cleansing/disinfecting agent.

Then as now, some proportion of the sugar cane was channelled for a rather for a by-product. Letting raw, unprocessed sugar cane juice ferment and then distilling it results in cachaça. Cachaça is available in literally hundreds of different varieties - ranging in prize (and rawness) from the very, very affordable (well, in Brazil anyway) to the exceedingly expensive. If you're in Brazil you just need to find yourself a cachaçaria to be able to sample a range of them.

Naturally, I brought a bottle home for myself. While you can drink it neat, the more famous way is as caipirinha. I believe it's traditionally made by crushing limes and sugar, then pouring over sugar and cachaça. I opt for a somewhat different approach because I find it easier to mix it properly (and because it's easier for me to learn the right relative proportions this way): I squeeze out the juice of one lime, add about the same volume of cachaça, 2-3 tsp sugar, ice cubes and smaller pieces of the lime I just squeezed.


Delicious!