Cachaçagora - Cachaça, Caipirinha, And Cocktails

AMOCI Reviews Abelha

Abelha Cachaça, this site's first scoop, continues to make friends. Tiare at A Mountain of Crushed Ice had nothing but glowing things to say about this highly compelling London entry into the cachaçasphere.

So what about the flavour? as i said i tried the white cachaca and its really really nice and smooth - with a hint of honey,  sugarcane and grass. A hint of the typical earthy flavour is there as well to remind you that this is cachaca. I can safely say this is the best i have tasted as far as cachacas go.

I, too, noticed this earthiness in the small samples I received. Unfortunately, it appears that many cachaças marketed outside Brazil go to some length to eliminate some of these characteristics. 

Finally, here's Tiare's recipe for a Bahia Rose:

Bahia Rose

• 2 oz Abelha Cachaca
• 1 oz Aperol
• 1 oz fresh ruby grapefruit
• 0.5 oz fresh lime
• 0.5 oz simple syrup.

Shake and pour in saucer type of glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a grapefruit rose and add two straws.

EDNBRG Explores Abelha

The EDNBRG blog has been on a big-time Abelha cachaça kick. Abelha, if you remember, was this blog's first scoop.

First, we have EDNBRG host Jonny Hughes' experiments with Abelha Silver:

Colisão

• 45ml Abelha Silver cachaça
• 25ml freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice
• 25ml pineapple juice
• 6-8 mint leaves

Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into an old-fashioned/rocks glass over crushed ice. Feel free to add a touch of gomme/simple syrup into the shaker to taste. Garnish with a grapefruit slice and a mint sprig.

Plantação

• 50ml Abelha Silver cachaça
• 25ml freshly squeezed lime juice
• 10ml sugar cane syrup
• 1 barspoon Maraschino

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into a chilled martini/coupette glass. Twist a lime zest over the top and discard. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.

And now, some creations featuring Abelha Gold:

Federação

• 50ml Abelha Gold cachaça
• 2 barspoons sugar cane syrup
• 1 dash Peychaud’s Bitters
• 15ml pressed apple juice

Place the bitters and syrup in the base of a rocks/old-fashioned glass. Add a couple of ice cubes and stir to thin out the mixture. Add the cachaça, fill the glass with ice and stir. Float the apple juice and garnish with an apple fan.

Downtown Rio

• 50ml Abelha Gold cachaça
• 20ml Martini Rosso
• 1 barspoon maraschino liqueur
• 2 dashes Angostura Orange bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist.

Cocktail Recipe: The Abelha Martinezinho

I swear I'll get to reviewing Abelha after the travel schedule slows down a bit. In the meantime, here's a recipe I caught from their Flickr photostream:

The Abelha Martinezinho

• 50ml Abelha Cachaça "Gold" (3 years aged)
• 50ml Rosso (sweet red vermouth)
• 2 bar spoons maraschino
• 2 dashes of grapefruit bitters

Stir ingredients over ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.

Spicy Pear Cachaça

Found at Boozemonger:

Spicy Pear Cachaca

This one’s an English drink based on traditional winter flavors that will require a little preparation. To make it, you’ll need a bottle of unaged Abelha Cachaça Silver, one pear (skinned and cut), a helping of cinnamon (half a stick should do), grated ginger about two teaspoonfuls, ten clove seeds and a dash of grated nutmeg (just a small amount).

...

To make a Spicy Pear Cachaça, put all the ingredients together in a jug and let it sit at room temperature to let the flavors infuse into the cachaca. One to two weeks of leaving it in should be enough to create an amazingly tasty drink. Leave it on for four weeks and you’ll have a cachaça cocktail ready to envelop your taste buds.

I don't have a lot of experience with infused cachaças, having tried only one or two. (I do have a ginger-vodka experiment in a mason jar at home, but that's about it.) Spicy pear sounds like an interesting mix that I might have to try.

Abelha Cachaça's Official Site Launches, Gives More Details On Social Responsibility

If you remember, diligent Flickr scanning got me the scoop on Abelha cachaça, which is currently a side project of London's Anthony Goh.

Anthony showed up in the comments to tell us that the official Abelha site is now live.

Most interesting is the site's description of the various imperatives for organic cachaça. As you know, the intersection of cachaça and social responsibility is a favorite topic of mine, particularly given the increased international attention on Brazil right now.

To this end, Abelha has gone so far as securing certifications on the export and import ends: Brazil's Instituto Biodinâmico (IBD) and the UK's Organic Farmers & Growers (OF&G).

And, if Abelha's environmental and human-rights arguments aren't enough for you, there's always this one:

There’s a growing school of thought that says organic wines and spirits give less severe hangovers, as there are less odd chemicals in them. We’re happy to believe this, but in the name of good science, we will continue to experiment by drinking almost daily until we have collected enough results to make a statistically robust claim.

Hey... Whatever makes the case!

Scoop: Abelha Cachaça -- A Transatlantic Cachaça In The Works

Abelha Cachaca Gold, Silver and John
Originally uploaded by Abelha Cachaça

I became aware of Abelha by way of Flickr and struck up an email conversation with one of its responsible parties, Anthony Goh in London.

Right now, it's a hobby project that he's pursuing with a buddy of his while they both work at day jobs.

As of today, here are the facts as I know them:

• The farm is in Bahia, near Chapada Diamantinha
• Two varieties -- one clear/unaged and another aged for three years in 250L garapeira barrels
• Small-batch copper still process

Abelha also claims to practice completely organic farming methods, and even teach the small collective of cane-harvesting farmers (for free) how to farm organically. Of course, as I've said before, human-rights and sustainability factors will likely become an increasingly important selection variable for cachaça.

Abelha also holds a particular distaste for how some cachaça brands go for hot-chicks-and-beaches stereotypes in their marketing. (Evidently, Chicago wasn't so happy about one particular approach, for example.)

"We believe in doing business with good social and environmental conscience, but don't want to sound preachy all the time," Anthony points out. "We are just selling booze after all!"

Their home page isn't up yet, so I hope that there's more information to come. For now, here's a slideshow:

Stay tuned.