Chicagoist on Cachaça Around the Windy City

July 04, 2011

Chicagoist on Cachaça Around the Windy City

Chicagoist has a great, timely feature on cachaça, highlighting bartender Peter Gugni of The Bedford.

Gugni came to the Bedford from the Cantina, a San Francisco bar specializing in Latin American libations. "They had close to two dozen different cachaças," Gugni says. Tasting through the Cantina's collection gave him an appreciation for cachaça's subtleties. "You're trying each one side-by-side. That's when you can explore the possibilities of cachaça."

Novo Fogo and Leblon each get a mention. Chicagoist also gives up the recipe for Gugni's first Novo Fogo cocktail "Edison's Medicine" (with apologies to Tesla, I'm sure).

Edison's Medicine, a popular Bedford cocktail featuring Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça,Yellow Chartreuse, fresh basil, agave syrup and lime (recipe below). "It's very round and full," Gugni says of the Novo Fogo Silver. Its slightly unctuous texture can lend drinks a luscious feel. "It's a very simple cocktail, but all those flavors really come together and complete each other." The bright green, basil-tinged color of the drink looked medicinal to Gugni, hence the rhyming name.

Here's the drink. For my stateside readers (which is most of you) enjoy your Fourth:

Edison's Medicine

1 1/2 ounces Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça
1/2 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
1 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce agave syrup
3 sprigs fresh basil

Gently muddle basil in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add remaining ingredient and ice. Shake hard and double-strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with orange zest.

Posted by Phil Gomes on July 04, 2011 at 02:55 PM in Cocktails | Permalink

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About Cachaçagora

Hi. My name is Phil Gomes. By day, I work at a public relations firm as its senior vice president of digital integration. I'm a proud SF East Bay native who currently lives in Chicago.
I was introduced to cachaça by my wife, a Carioca. Her mom, in turn, is the president of the Confraria de Cachaça do Copo Furado, a group that meets monthly to talk about Brazil's indigenous spirit. I participated in one of their meetings when I vacationed in Rio in July 2008.
This started me thinking about the basic question of whether cachaça in the U.S. is today where, say, tequila was some decades ago.
So I decided to start this blog as a means to record and share the cachaça-related items I've been seeing day-to-day. I hope to be sharing recipes, impressions, and random thoughts as the U.S. continues to catch on to the potential for this particular spirit.
Oh... The name? "Cachaçagora" is a portmanteau of "Cachaça" and "agora", which is the Portuguese word for "now". In Greek, "agora" also means public square. I hope to meet the expectations of both.
Saúde!
cachacagora~~ at~~ gmail~~ dot~~ com

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Cachaçagora - Cachaça, Caipirinha, And Cocktails

Quite possibly the best English-language blog about cachaça, the national distilled spirit of Brazil.

July 04, 2011