Novo Fogo and SOFI TUKKER Partner Up Because Where There's Cachaça, There's Music!

Cachaça is Brazil’s national spirit and symbolizes the country’s fascinating history and colorful rhythm of life. Novo Fogo, a rainforest conservation steward and producer of award-winning cachaças, has recently welcomed the Grammy-nominated dance music superstars SOFI TUKKER as equity partners in the company. The partnership promises to spread the alegria of Brazilian spirits, environmentalism, and joyful music to a growing global audience.

Big lovers of Brazil, the SOFI TUKKER band has long paid homage to the country’s musical richness. Sophie Hawley-Weld—one half of the duo with Tucker Halpern—lived in Brazil, developing an affection for Brazilian poetry, later influencing the band’s playful Portuguese lyrics and collaborations with Brazilian poets.

SOFI TUKKER’s deep-seated love for Brazil’s music culture emanates through their vibrant stage presence and tropical dance music, heavily influenced by bossa nova, a soft and seductive sambastyle music genre from Rio de Janeiro.

So, bringing together two instruments of joy—music and cachaça—was a nobrainer partnership. “Our role is to be the 'Chief Alegria Officers" which translates to the Chief Joy Officers,” says SOFI TUKKER. A title we think no one can refuse.

Channeling the party is what cachaça is all about. The spirit is the core ingredient in the Caipirinha, a cocktail synonymous with celebration, an unequivocal aspect of Brazilian culture, and SOFI TUKKER’s music. “Novo Fogo is a natural fit because we share the same loves: love of Brazil, the rainforest, and love of celebration.”

Novo Fogo’s partnership with SOFI TUKKER is not only meant to start a global cachaça dance party (however, with the band’s beats, it’s quite inevitable) but also to spread environmental awareness.

Cachaça is a spirit made from sugarcane, a sturdy crop that is notoriously difficult to harvest and has been associated with negative environmental and labor practices across the tropics. Novo Fogo cultivates sugarcane and produces cachaça in Brazil’s coastal Atlantic Rainforest, which has lost nearly 90% of its original area to deforestation. Against this backdrop, in one of the most biodiverse places in the world, Novo Fogo has dedicated itself to leaving behind a positive legacy of forest preservation to match its commitment to producing excellent cachaça.

The distillery’s mission has always been to support a more sustainable future for Brazil. Their logo encapsulates it all with the araucaria or Paraná pine—a gorgeous symbol of southern Brazil. These trees were once abundant, surrounding the distillery and giving life to the Atlantic Rainforest. Now, the Paranà pine is a critically endangered species.

Seeing their land drained of its once vigorous biodiversity remains a major motivator for Novo Fogo and its cachaça production. “They're not just making cachaça. They're conscious of taking care of people and the planet at the same time,” comments the duo, reflecting on their visit to the distillery in Morretes, Brazil, in the heart of the Atlantic Rainforest. “The Atlantic rainforest has many endangered species of trees, and Novo Fogo is helping to protect the biodiversity of the area.”

Today, Novo Fogo dedicates itself to reforestation initiatives, like The UnEndangered Forest™ project, started by Novo Fogo as a collaboration with local ecotourism destination Ekôa Park and The Horus Institute NGO, to promote biodiversity and safeguard Brazilian land. The project aims to restore 44 species of rare native trees. “The Novo Fogo team is actively thinking about the context of the environment in which the sugar cane comes from and figuring out how to become a part of the solution rather than the problem,” says SOFI TUKKER.

These solutions are clear in Novo Fogo’s future-forward initiatives. The distillery maintains a zero-waste facility, reusing and conserving resources during its cachaça production. More than that, Novo Fogo prioritizes the well-being of its team, including everyone from the cane cutters to the office workers. The band met everyone and even put on a private concert performance, an extra special treat for bartenders Colleen Hughes and Maxwell Berlin—the two winners of the 2022 Novo Fogo Bar Strength Challenge grand-prize trip to the distillery for some immersive rainforest cachaça education.

The grand prize trip to Brazil brought everyone together for a deep dive into cachaça production with Novo Fogo’s Master Distiller Dr. Agenor Maccari, Jr., and an exploration into forest-saving sustainability initiatives and, of course, cachaça tastings. With bartenders mixing drinks and SOFI TUKKER making beats, a new appreciation for small batch cachaça was undoubtedly born.

“There is the music and the performance and the visuals, but being involved with Novo Fogo means we also get to think about how the audience is participating on a sensual and energetic level. How do we want our music to taste? How do we want it to smell?” shares the duo.

All these questions will find their answer in the future. There’s a little spoiler for it too, as SOFI TUKKER are hands-on participants in developing future products with the Novo Fogo team. They alluded to tasty things to come later this year. “We're also branching outside the cachaça umbrella to include options for people who don't drink alcohol, like Sophie, which makes the brand super unique and inclusive.”

Caipirinha

INGREDIENTS

2 oz. Novo Fogo Silver or Novo Fogo Barrel-Aged Cachaça

1 ¼ tbsp sugar

½ fresh lime

PREPARATION

Remove the width pith from the lime and discard it. Cut the remaining lime into slices; toss them into the glass. Muddle them with sugar in the glass. Fill the glass with ice. Add cachaça and pour everything into a shaker. Shake and pour everything (including the ice) back into the same glass.

SOFI TUKKER are channeling all the senses into their new spirits partnership. “It's so fun to extend our creativity into all the senses. We aren't just thinking about the sound and the look of the world we are creating, but also about the taste, the smell, and the feel!” says SOFI TUKKER. “For us, it's about bringing the smells and tastes of the Brazilian rainforest to people!”

We can proudly say that SOFI TUKKER emanates the color of cachaça. Bringing together the radiance of cachaça culture, combined with Novo Fogo’s positive impact on the environment, makes this new partnership a match made in heaven, almost as good as a Novo Fogo Caipirinha in hand and SOFI TUKKER’s latest bop “Jacaré” bumping on the speakers.

A Winning Trip to Brazil With Novo Fogo’s Bar Strength Cachaça Challenge

A note from Novo Fogo

Cachaça:

We had an amazing time with Colleen Hughes and Maxwell Berlin, the two grand-prize winners from 2022’s Novo Fogo Bar Strength Challenge cocktail competition. It’s safe to say that they did, too. It was a bit of a unique distillery visit in part because of the timing when we weren’t actively producing cachaça, but the bartenders got a deep dive nonetheless into the rest of Novo Fogo’s process, including some hand-guided education with our master distiller, Dr. Agenor Maccari, Jr. (and a lot of cachaça tasting!).

It was also a special trip because we hosted our partners from SOFI TUKKER for the week to join in the immersion and perform a private show at our distillery. Colleen and Maxwell got to share some of their talents along the way by making cocktails for the group and our Novo Fogo colleagues. It’s truly a special thing when bartenders can absorb our magical part of Brazil and leave their mark on it. They even got to plant their own rare tree seedlings to leave the Atlantic Forest a bit better than they found it!