Cachaçagora - Cachaça, Caipirinha, And Cocktails

Update On Cuca Fresca's Mixology Contest

Camper English points us to the Cuca Fresca mixology contest, Shake Your Way To Brazil, which launched in July. Recipes are up and voting is open.

There are plenty of intruiging recipes up on the contest site now. A carrot-juice-based cocktail from Todd Appel of Chicago's Hotel Sax caught Camper's interest, but I gave my vote to Corey Bunnewith's Brazilian Autumn:

Brazilian Autumn

• 2 oz Cuca Fresca Premium Cachaça
• .5 oz Lime Juice
• .25 oz Domaine de Canton
• .25 oz Honey
• 3 Shiso Leaves
• Dash Angostura Bitters

Shake over ice. Double strain into a coupe. Grate nutmeg over the top for garnish.

Why? A couple of reasons:

• I've been experimenting with Domaine de Canton for a while here at the Gomecile.
• Honey and nutmeg have been favorite cocktail ingredients of mine for a while now.

Public voting ends on Halloween. Cuca Fresca will announce the judges' and People's Choice awards on Nov. 1.

Leblon's "Legalize Cachaça" Marches

One thing's for sure: Leblon appears to do more than most to educate the market and open the cachaça category in the U.S. for all brands. At some point, I have to believe that either 1) Leblon will tire of carrying everyone's publicity load for such campaigns, or 2) the U.S. cachaça-importing industry will simply run out of Leblon's ideas. 

In the meantime, though, they have taken up the cause of fighting regulatory injustices, sclerotic bureaucracies, and prohibition-era legal anachronisms. How? By bringing attention to the fact that TTB requires that cachaça be labeled "Brazilian Rum", relegating the spirit's proper name to the status of mere secondary descriptor. 

Leblon's effort takes the form of the "Legalize Cachaça" campaign, realized as "protests" (bar-crawls with hand-held signs, really) seen at Tales of the Cocktail and various cities around the U.S. Last Sunday, the effort came to the Windy City. (Video at bottom.)

Of course, as any trip to a decent liquor store indicates, cachaça is certainly "legal" in that it can be purchased, possessed, and enjoyed by anyone of sufficient age. However, the TTB insists that if you distill a sugarcane spirit of any sort, it must be called a "rum". Leblon seeks to ensure that cachaça be fairly afforded the same treatment as, say, cognac, champagne, or tequila.

Other events have already taken place in San Francisco, Boston, Orlando, Miami, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and New York City. Upcoming events on September 18 include:

Los Angeles

• ASIA de CUBA, 844 W. Sunset Blvd. @ The Standard Hotel, 4:30-5:30pm 
• KETCHUP, 8590 W. Sunset Blvd., 6:30-7:30pm 
• RED ROCK, 8782 W. Sunset Blvd., 7:30pm 

Houston

• CYCLONE ANAYAS MIDTOWN, 309 Gray St., 8:00pm - 9:00pm 
• UNION BAR, 2708 Bagby St., 9:00pm - 10:00pm 
• OPEN CITY, 2416 Brazos St., 10:00pm - 11:00pm TIPSY CLOVER CITY, 2416 Brooks St., 11:00pm - 12:00am

I had a blast at their event. If you're in El Lay or Houston, be sure to check it out. There's also a DC event in the works. 

Here's my video. Flickr is fighting me this evening, so watch for an update to this post if you want to see my slideshow.

Video

UPDATE: Here's the slideshow:

Winners of Leblon's TotC Caipirinha Competition

Leblon and the USBG brought together eighteen bartenders from nine cities for a caipirinha competition during Tales of the Cocktail. In the end, the People's Choice and Judges' awards went to the delegates from NYC (Tad Carducci) and Las Vegas (Tobin Ellis and Andrew Pollard), respectively.

Perhaps most interesting, however, was the perspective of the self-proclaimed third-place winner from Phoenix, Corey Jansen of Rizing Phoenix Bar Services.

Prepping for 400 people to try (what they expected to show up) was quite an undertaking.  I zested about 120 oranges and dried them out in the sun and brought that along as well as squeezing over 200 lime halves to prebatch for people to try.  Having thrown this drink together in a couple of hours due to the fact that I got the rules the afternoon of the day before the deadline I was very nervous about my drink not being up to par compared to everybody else especially since we were being judged as a team.  I was even squeezing limes up until the people started asking for drinks so we didn’t even get to set up our western theme that I spent over a hundred dollars on decorations, flags, etc.

Here are the winning recipes. First, the Judges' selections:

Sao Paulo Flip

• 1 ½ oz Leblon Cachaça
• ½ oz St. Germain
• ½ tsp Apricot & fig marmalade
• 2 dashes Peychaud Bitters
• Garnish- Lemon Espuma Foam
• Glassware: Martini Coupe

To make Lemon Espuma, in dessert whip combine:

• 4 oz Fresh squeezed lemon
• 4 oz cane syrup
• 4 oz egg white
• Charge with Nitrous Oxide Canister

Combine ingredients in a shaker, add ice and shake well. Strain in a coupe and top with Lemon Espuma Foam and bitters.

El Calor del [sic] Brasil

• 2 oz Leblon Cachaça
• 4 medium basil leaves
• 1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
• ½ oz tangerine Puree (Boiron)
• 1 pineapple chunk
• ½ oz homemade spice syrup
• Garnish - pineapple spear, basil sprig, and fresh cracked black pepper.

Muddle the pineapple, basil leaf, lime juice, homemade syrup and tangerine puree. Add Leblon Cachaça, ice and double strain over fresh ice. Garnish with a pineapple spear, basil sprig and fresh cracked black pepper.

And the People's Choice:

Masalarinha

• 2 oz Leblon Cachaça
• ½ oz honey
• ¾ oz fresh lime
• 1 fresh pineapple cube
• 1 yellow grapfruit peel - 2 inches
• ¼ tsp Garam Masala powder
• ¼ tsp Tumeric

Muddle the lime, pineapple and honey. Add additional ingredients and ice. Shake and serve over ice into a highball glass. Garnish with a slice of pineapple.

More Boca Loca, More Jeffrey, More Cocktails

Didn't make it to Tales of the Cocktail? Neither did I. Seems to land on the same week I go to a fishing trip every year. (This year was remarkable for the fact that we managed to knock off a bottle each of Colonial Brasil, Cachaça Século, and the sublime Monte Alvão.)

In any case, the Intoxicologist was there:

While a traditional Caipirinha is always refreshing, [Boca Loca consulting mixologist Jeffrey] Morgenthaler’s Black Dog hit the spot; not too sweet, well balanced and straightforward enough for the home bartender to reconstruct without rounding up difficult to find ingredients.

Here you go:

Black Dog

• 2 ounces Boca Loca Cachaça
• 3/4 ounce Lemon Juice
• 1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
• 1/2 ounce Egg White
• 1 teaspoon Apricot Preserves
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters

Put all ingredients in shaker with ice.  Shake vigorously and double strain into cocktail glass or champagne coup.

June 12 Is International Cachaça Day

Photo Credit: Mantelli

Think of it as just like the American Repeal Day, just with a longer and likely bloodier history.

The folks at Cabana described International Cachaça Day in their pitch as:

International Cachaça Day was started by Sociedade Brasileira da Cachaça, a Brasilian government organization. It was created to commemorate June 12th, 1744: the day when Portugal, then the colonial authority in Brasil, outlawed the production and selling of cachaça.

Cabana, Leblon, and Boca Loca are all over this.

First, three restaurants in Chicago (and presumably elsewhere) will be pouring specialty drinks featuring Cabana. The most interesting of these is the Tropical Caipirinha, served at The Signature Room (875 N. Michigan Ave.).

Tropical Caipirinha

• 1.5oz Cabana Cachaça
• ½ oz simple syrup (1/2 shot)
• 3 oz lychee puree
• Splash of soda water

There's also going to be a tasting event at UnCork It (393 E Illinois Street) from 5-8pm. Leticia and I will probably be there, then bounce across the street for dinner at Niu and then Terminator: Salvation at the AMC. 

(For those of you about to jump all over me for taking my pregnant wife to a spirits tasting followed by sushi... Drop dead. She doesn't drink and we don't touch the raw fish.) 

Boca Loca, true to form, is working with leading mixologists to help us all get out of the caipirinha rut. Here's one from longtime Boca Loca collaborator Jeffrey Morgenthaler (interviewed last year) who, in addition to his masterful mixology skills, probably comes up with the best names for drinks:

Border Agitation

• 1.5 oz Boca Loca Cachaça
• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
• 0.5 oz simple syrup
• 0.5 oz egg white
• 2 tsp pepper jelly
• Bitter lemon soda 

Shake ingredients with ice until well chilled. Double-strain into a
Collins glass over ice. Top with 2 oz bitter lemon soda.

Leblon makes the argument that, in some ways, cachaça is still held captive. This time, the antagonists are not Portuguese colonists but American regulators, who insist that the third-most-distilled spirit in the world be labeled "Brazilian Rum" here in the states. 

Oh, how my devout Libertarian soul shudders at the Nanny State reality of it all...

Finally, here are some related posts from around the Web, most with recipes:

• A Muddled Thought: "Okay so what does this mean? Well first of all it’s an excuse to make cocktails using cachaça."
• Republic of Rum: "The Brazilian Association of Spirits (ABRABE) reports that Brazil produces some 4,000 brands of cachaça, totaling a billion liters each year."
• Nightclub & Bar: "Operators looking for an edge are increasing their cachaça and Caipirinha load — not easy, as few of the new brands are available nationally. The Sunset Lounge at the Mondrian Hotel in Miami Beach offers nearly 50 cachaças and a selection of Caipirinhas infused with flavors such as lychee-elderflower and peach-lemongrass." 
• SFGate: "[The Cantina in San Francisco] already carries at least 27 versions of Brazil's national spirit, which is made from distilled cane juice and used in the caipirinha. On Thursday, it will offer a menu of harder-to-find cachaças such as Weber Haus, which won the Best White Spirit award at the recent San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Armazem Vieira. Owner Duggan McDonnell is creating a menu of creative cachaça cocktails, and of course there will be caipirinhas and a Brazil-themed DJ." 
• Metromix New York: "And so, bars and restaurants around the [NYC] have put together their finest cachaça-based drinks for your enjoyment, all day." 

Cabana Cachaça Event At Chicago's Zocalo

Had the great pleasure of meeting Cabana Cachaça founder Matti Anttila and master distiller César Cestari this evening at Zocalo during a meet-and-greet for local distributors.

A great conversation was had, especially with regard to artisanal craft methods and Cabana's double-distillation process (a kind of Cestari trademark touch).

Interesting fact: César's specialty had long been aged cachaças. Cabana is the first application of his considerable skills toward the un-aged variety.

César even brought a miniature jequitibá barrel (above). One thing that has been clear to me thus far — jequitibá seems to be a common variable in many of the favorite cachaças I've yet tried, including Aroma Brasil and Boca Loca as well as Cabana.

And, behold, Cachacagora's first video interview, recorded via my trusty first-generation Flip:

Boca Loca Launches At London's Made In Brasil

Here's a brief slideshow of Boca Loca's recent launch at Made In Brasil. RumFest founder Ian Burrell was in attendance.

Restaurant reviews:

Trusted Places

Made In Brasil is an authentic cachacaria, which is Brazilian for House of Cachaca; a place where you can find all types of Cachaca (sugar cane rum). With over seventy on offer, these can be enjoyed straight, with coke or as a Caipirinha.

ViewLondon

The most traditional cachaca drink, a Caipirinha – where a healthy measure of the spirit is mixed with fresh lime, sugar and crushed ice – is the most popular option, but the bar offers a vast array of variations on this theme, including the banana or the staff-recommended chilli-raspberry versions.

Their cocktail menu (PDF) currently features Sagatiba heavily.

Repeal Day Is Today

My interview with Jeffrey Morgenthaler introduced me to the concept of Repeal Day — a day when we Americans should take some time to celebrate the end of so-called "Great Experiment" of Prohibition.

Of course, the Libertarian in me wholeheartedly supports any holiday that commemorates the rare instance when government meddling into American lives was turned back.

By the time many of you read this, I will be on a plane. Have a caipirinha or five for me.

In the meantime, some related links:

• "The Lessons Of Prohibition", Reason
• "Celebrating Cinco de Drinko", The Wall Street Journal
• "New Orleans bars celebrate the 75th anniversary of Prohibition's repeal", The Times-Picayune
• "Should We Celebrate Repeal Day?", KVAL
• "Champagne at the signing of the 21st Amendment", Cocktailiana
• "Repeal Day Playlist", A Dash Of Bitters

Videos From Sagatiba's Battle Of The Bars, Toronto

Caught this series on Sagatiba's YouTube channel: A "Battle Of The Bars" delivered in nine segments.

Described by the emcee as "a cocktail competition like Vancouver has never seen," representatives from nine bars try to impress six judges with their own Sagatiba creations.

Watch Part One as the contestants "shake, muddle, and pour their way into the judges hearts." (Oh, stop. I report it as I see and hear it.)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Wrap-Up: Leblon Hosts Thursday Drink Night At The Mixoloseum

I was traveling to Seoul, Tokyo, New Brunswick, and New York the past two weeks. For all that, there was no way I was going to miss Leblon stopping by the Mixoloseum Thursday Drink Night chat.

Two great roundups have the cocktail recipes the group shared, plus all of the photographic goodness.

Great to see that Leblon founder/CEO Steve Luttmann showed up. Hell... He says he even likes our shirts!

UPDATE 2008-11-26: Kaiser Penguin put up a best-of wrap-up as well.