A hearty hat-tip to Cocktail Conversations, who shared these two Cabana-based cachaça cocktails in time for the inauguration.
The theme, of course, is "Red, White, and Blue". Cachaça figures into two of them.
Blue Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Cabana Cachaça
3/4 oz blue curacao
1 oz pineapple juice
2 lemon wedges
1 teaspoon of sugar
Muddle sugar and lemon. Add ingredients and shake vigorously, serve on rocks in rocks glass, no extra garnish.
White Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Cabana Cachaça
1/2 oz Crème de caco white
Egg white
1 oz Sweetened lemon juice (lemon juice and two heaping spoonfuls of sugar also does the trick)
Shake all ingredients in an ice filled shaker and strain. Serve in a martini glass.
I'm still on the road, working out of the day job'sMumbai office. Thanks to this office's GM (the inimitable Roger "Mr. P" Pereira), I'll be taking in the inauguration at an event sponsored by the U.S. Consul General and the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. Just one more incredible experience in what's turning out to be an absolutely mind-scrambling trip.
I'm on the road on business, right in the middle of the second of four trips into the Asia/Pacific region. So far, only one caipirinha has been obtained on this trip and it was here in Hong Kong. (Made from Cachaça 51. Evidently, the bartender thought that using half the sugar stashed behind his bar was Uma Boa Idéia.)
Two recipes piqued my interest. The first comes from, of all places, Women's Wear Daily:
’Tis the season to raise a glass—and after the year we’ve had, goodness knows we could use a tall one. WWDScoop gathered cocktail recipes from expert hostesses around the globe and asked “The Liquid Chef,” Junior Merino, head mixologist at Rayuela in New York, to offer his take on each.
Caipirinha aux Fruits Rouges
4 shots of Cachaça (Cabana Cachaça is recommended)
Juice of 1 lemon
Handful of strawberries, chopped, stems removed
1/2 mango, peeled, pitted and chopped
2 kiwi, peeled and chopped
1 mandarin orange, peeled and chopped
THE LIQUID CHEF SAYS: “You don’t want to overpower the drink with fruits.” He suggests omitting the mandarin, because of its distinctive taste.
WWD didn't include preparation instructions, unfortunately, but I'm sure the name gives some hint.
To make some lime juice simple syrup, juice a few limes, strain out the pulp, put the remaining juice in a small pan, and add a few tablespoons of sugar (just short of a 50-50 blend of lime juice and sugar). Eyeball it, you’ll be close enough. Once you drink one, you won’t care anyway. As the lime juice heats up, it gets a little cloudy as the sugar dissolves. Then suddenly, it is clear again. Turn off the heat and let it cool. This stuff keeps in the fridge nearly forever, so make a lot so you will have some handy.
Now just add a few ice cubes to your martini shaker, drop in the cachaça and your lime juice mixture and shake it till your nose bleeds or your teeth come loose, whichever happens sooner. Pour this in a glass and top with your ginger beer (or ginger ale — ginger beer is way better though).
Finally, I leave you with an Ypióca commercial that apparently ran in Greece:
Needless to say, when Cabana Cachaca invited me to sample cocktails by Alex Straus – L.A. barman extraordinaire – paired with Latin-inspired delicacies designed by Executive Chef Todd English at Beso, co-owned with “Desperate Housewives” Eva Longoria Parker and one of the hottest hotspots in the ‘Hollyhood,’ I was excited!
She shares some interesting recipes by Alex Straus. Here's one, the serrano caipirinha:
It's a long-ish story of how the bottle came to be in my possession (involving dropping in unannounced at Cabana's PR firm), but Cabana found me and gave me a bottle for review.
If all you know of the brand is what you see in their infamous ads, I know that a lot of you really want to hate Cabana Cachaça.
Of course, that would mean that our country's puritans and knee-jerk protestniks would be missing out. Cabana Cachaça is actually quite good — very crisp and smooth, though with a somewhat unique-but-not-overpowering sharpness in the finish. (They certainly employ some of the craft methods that I find characteristic of some of my favorite cachaças thus far — small-batch distillation and aging in jequitibárosa barrels.)
The zillion-dollar question: Is Cabana the super-premium cachaça they're marketing it as? I'm taking a wait-and-see. The U.S. is still searching for its "Grey Goose" or "Patrón" of cachaça. Cabana, from its marketing to the bottle design, is definitely aiming in that direction.
Like with Leblon, I'm curious as to whether Cabana will be introducing a... umm... let's call it a super-duper-premium cachaça? Further, at US$34.99 a bottle, are they pricing themselves out of the range where cocktail economics carry volume? (I'd imagine a Cabana caipirinha ain't cheap.) Having introduced a product with their amp turned to the mythical "eleven" setting, where do you go from here?
You can always tune in here if-or-when the answer presents itself.
Muddle strawberries with lemon juice and simple syrup in the bottom of a mixing glass, then add Cabana and ice. Shake and strain into a champagne glass then top with Prosseco. Garnish with a strawberry wedge and enjoy.
I swore to myself when Cabana Cachaça's racy ads and Web site started to make waves -- "straight-up porn" according to Time Out Chicago -- I'd just ignore it. It's pretty clear that their marketing is going for the linkbait factor and I'm not inclined to indulge it too much.
But, when you're a blog that's all-cachaça-all-the-time, there's an expectation that you'd have something to say about such a widelycovered campaign.
First, let me just say that America's Puritan roots are showing a little too much these days. One might think that, decades after pure-as-the-driven-snow Julie "Mary Poppins" Andrews insisted on showing the moviegoing public her breasts, and days after the FCC gave CBS a pass for Nipplegate, that we'd be past all this.
Nope. Not a chance. Alas, there remains this irrational fear. A uniquely American fear of the female nipple that's getting bigger.
(Err... The fear, I mean.)
On the other hand, I personally tend to find the whole "sex sells" ethic cynical, especially when you're selling a product (alcohol) that, when tied too closely to sex, often results in rather unfortunate consequences in the real world.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a prude and you're not going to find me hanging out in front of Cabana's importer naked wearing a sandwich board chanting "Spirits Not Skin!", "Cachaça Not Crotch!", or "Tipples Not Nipples!"
However, I'm inclined to pay more attention to a cachaça brand that has more to say about the craft and the product.
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.
Comments here are unmoderated and are operated on a use-until-abused basis. I will adopt a moderation policy if I feel that my visitors abuse this privilege.
I will delete any comment that is lewd, crude, lascivious, racist, sexist, libelous, off-topic, or injurious to the privacy of a non-public individual. Such users will be forever banned from commenting on this site.
From time to time, certain comments will be investigated if they appear to be marketing spam. The offending company gets one free pass before public censure.
In short, treat me as your host and I will treat you as my guest.
Recent Comments