Cachaçagora - Cachaça, Caipirinha, And Cocktails

Tech Venture Firm Takes Stake In Beija

How rare it is that I get to combine two of my favorite things: high-tech and cachaça. Hell... All I need is for Type O Negative to sing a song about it and I'll have a Phil Gomes hobby hat-trick.

Blue Caterpillar LLC, an tech investment and advisory firm, has invested in Beija. Their assessment of the opportunity certainly echoes the opinions stated here on Cachacagora, namely, that very little cachaça makes it out of Brazil and folks up in this hemisphere are eager to try something new.

More from Blue Caterpillar:

Beija doesn’t have to be the worlds [sic] leading brand to offer attractive investment returns.  The global liquor market is dominated by a number of large conglomerates like Brown-Forman (NYSE: BF.A, $49, $7B Cap), Fortune Brands (NYSE: FO, $36, $5.5B Cap), Diageo (NYSE: DEO, $54, $33B Cap), LVMH, and Bacardi among others.  They will all end up having their own brands of cachaça as the market develops.  Many will also have multiple positions with “super premium,” “premium” and “superior” labels to address the market opportunity.

Our assessment is that Beija has the right ingredients to make it in the market.  The valuation parameters are in line with the stage of company development and potential valuations in this market are easy to calculate since they are largely driven by case volume.

While I can't find evidence that Bacardi acquired Leblon, as the post says in another paragraph, I do know that it took a minority stake in the company. When Blue Caterpillar says that Bacardi "acquired a small local producer," they might be referring to Leblon's purchase of the distillery that became Maison Leblon in Minas Gerais.

Beija, rated 3.5 barrels here, took third in the post-New-Year's blind tasting that my buddy Richard and I undertook. This, of course, should not be taken to mean that Beija is at all inferior; the competition in that particular tasting was unusually fierce. I also linked to an early profile of the young founders, which ran on WestonForum.Com.

New Year's Blind Tasting Of White Cachaças

Photo Credit: Leticia Gomes

This New Year's, my best friend Richard and his wife Mariya came up to visit. At one point, my wife suggested that Richard and I do a blind tasting of four white cachaças. Richard and I all-too-happily complied.

Keep in mind this was quite the cachaça week. During the welcome party that we threw for Richard and Mariya that Tuesday, I ended up pouring at least 14 caipirinhas (Leblon, Cabana, Boca Loca) for our ten or so guests and maybe three doses (Barril 39, Velho Pescador) for myself, all while Richard and I shared tales of our richly enjoyed shenanigans from our time in the East Bay.

As to the Thursday tasting, the four contenders were (left to right):

• Guapiara Silver
• Cuca Fresca
• Boca Loca
• Beija

Photo Credit: Leticia Gomes

All of these cachaças were sent to me over the past six months by representatives of these brands. Of the four, you can find my reviews of Boca Loca and Beija on Cachaçagora. (I haven't gotten to the others just yet.) All are 40% ABV.

Richard and I left the room while my wife poured the cachaça and assigned them their designated letters on the tasting mats.

Photo Credit: Leticia Gomes

See the rankings after the jump.

Review: Beija Cachaça

This entrant, currently available in-and-around New England, has been in the "Tasting Lab" (i.e., my kitchen counter) for a pretty long time. The Beija Guys (as they two young entrepreneurs are called in their newsletter) found me and sent over a couple of bottles a while ago.

While Beija is maybe not my first choice taken straight — and I strongly deny that cocktail-mixing is a universally necessary evil when it comes to white cachaça — it makes for a very capable and versatile mixer, much like Sagatiba Pura. During my wife's birthday party, I used Beija in a 2:3::cachaça:milk brunch cocktail with sugar, nutmeg, and a dash of vanilla extract. Two guests enjoyed it, one not so much. All told, not a bad ratio considering my good-entertainer's tendency to mix things a little on the stronger side.

A few after-work caipirinhas and Cafés Irlandês continued to make Beija a welcome addition to the bar throughout the month. It's pretty tough to go wrong with this one.

Now... If only they could inch westward from Mass., Conn., and Rhode Island...

Three-and-a-half barrels with a bullet. Definitely one to watch.

The Story Of Beija Cachaça

WestonForum.Com ran a piece about the young founders of Beija Cachaça:

With no previous experience in the liquor business, both men, 24, have put everything they have on the line to create a start-up company that produces Beija. Whether their gamble will pay off remains to be seen.

Even if you only have a passing interest in the U.S. cachaça market, the article is worth a read simply because you have to admire their persistence and determination.

Also, their tale of pursuing a distributor -- "they all laughed at us" -- seems to be a familiar one. This 2007 Forbes feature (of which I'm not too terribly fond) describes Leblon founder Steven Luttman getting "the brush-off" from fifty distributors in twelve months. Clearly these distributors are only now starting to wise up to the potential.

And, no, I haven't tried Beija yet.