Your Summer Idyll With Cachaça

BY GAETANO MARANGELLI

In the bloom of May, summer stretches before you, an idyll of possibility. In the leaves of August, you look for ways to make your summer last, a memento of your idyll to carry you back to May.

It was a Bradford Beach summer party, where Maud and John of Maryland Avenue served their guests espetinhos de queijo de coalho (skewers of grilled curd-like cheese) with molho de alho (garlic sauce) and Caipirinhas, Brazil’s classic cocktail, made with Brazil’s most popular spirit, cachaça. The sun set. The moon rose. We lost perspective of where we were. It was a great party. It felt like Copacabana or Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, where, at the height of summer, people go to the beach in the evening as well as the afternoon.

Six months later, in the depth of winter, Maud and John threw a party at their Maryland Avenue apartment. They served feijoada à brasileira (a black bean stew) and Caipirinhas. The moon set. The sun rose. We lost perspective of where we were. It was another great party. It felt like a night at the botecos in the Vila Madalena of São Paulo.

What rum is to the islands of the West Indies, cachaça is to the country of Brazil. Cachaça is like rum, but it isn’t. Both are distilled from sugar cane, but cachaça can only be made in Brazil from fresh sugar cane juice, which is fermented and distilled. Rum can be made anywhere, and is typically distilled from molasses, a byproduct of refining sugar from its cane. (Rhum agricole, which is distilled from sugar cane juice on the French island of Martinique, is closer to cachaça.)

The tastes of cachaça and rum are also distinctively different. Where rum displays aggressively, cachaça displays gently. Where cachaça shows herby, grassy, fruity aromas and flavors, rum shows carmel and spice. Artisanal cachaça, which is made in small batches in pot stills, tastes even richer and more sensuous than industrial cachaça, which is made in large batches distilled in column stills.

CACHAÇA LEXICON

The first step in your summer idyll is acquiring a bottle of cachaça. You’ll find two styles:

• Branca (White), also called Prata (Silver): Unaged cachaça. This is the style you want for mixing drinks like Caipirinhas.

• Amarela (Yellow), also called Ouro (Gold): Cachaça aged in barrels made of oak or wood native to Brazil (e.g., peanut, zebra, balsam, amburana, amendoim bravo). The color of the style derives from its aging in wood barrels. This is the style you want for drinking straight up. Many producers add less than six grams per liter of sugar to their cachaças before bottling them. (Producers that add more classify their cachaças as adoçada). Dishonest producers add caramel color to their spirits to make them look aged.

If you’re looking for aged cachaça, you’ll find these two categories:

• Premium: Cachaça aged in a wood vessel of 700 liters or less for at least one year.

• Extra Premium: Cachaça aged in a wood vessel of 700 liters or less for at least three years.

CACHAÇA COCKTAILS

With a bottle of cachaça, you’re ready to enjoy your summer idyll every day of the year. Brandon Reyes, General Manager of Bittercube, and Anthony Valenti, Bar Manager of Bittercube Bar at the upcoming North Avenue Market, show you how.

CLASSIC CAIPIRINHA

Photo by Anthony Valenti, Bar Manager of Bittercube at the upcoming North Avenue Market.

CLASSIC CAIPIRINHA

Curated by Brandon Reyes

• 2 or 3 lime quarters, cut lengthwise (two if a medium to large lime, three if a small lime) • 2 tsps. granulated or turbinado sugar • 2 ozs. Cachaça Branca • 1 dropper or dash Bittercube Orange Bitters • Glass: Rocks • Garnish: Spent lime shells

Instructions Add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker, muddle and then fill with ice. Shake briefly until chilled and pour into glass without straining.

Photo by Anthony Valenti, Bar Manager of Bittercube at the upcoming North Avenue Market.

MANGO CAIPIRINHA

Photo by Anthony Valenti, Bar Manager of Bittercube at the upcoming North Avenue Market.

BATIDA ROSA

Photo by Anthony Valenti, Bar Manager of Bittercube at the upcoming North Avenue Market.

Photo by Anthony Valenti, Bar Manager of Bittercube at the upcoming North Avenue Market.

MANGO CAIPIRINHA

by Anthony Valenti

• 2 or 3 lime quarters, cut lengthwise (two if a medium to large lime, three if a small lime) • 8 freshly cut mango cubes (one-quarter inch cubes) • 2 tsps. granulated or turbinado sugar • 2 ozs. Cachaça Branca • 1 dropper or dash Bittercube Orange Bitters and/ or Cardamom Extract (optional) • Glass: Rocks • Garnish: Mango cube skewer and mint sprig

Instructions Add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker, muddle and then fill with ice. Shake briefly until chilled and pour into glass without straining.

BATIDA ROSA

by Brandon Reyes

• 1/2 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice • 3/4 oz. pineapple juice • 1 oz. grenadine • 2 ozs. Cachaça Branca • 1 1/2 ozs. seltzer • 1 dropper or dash Bittercube Bolivar Bitters • Glass: Collins with ice • Garnish: Lemon twist

Instructions Add all of the ingredients except seltzer to a cocktail shaker and then fill with ice. Shake with a fluid, strong motion. Add seltzer to the shaker and strain into Collins glass over fresh ice.

Gaetano Marangelli is a sommelier and playwright. He was the managing director of a wine import and distribution company in New York and beverage director for restaurants and retailers in New York and Chicago before moving to Wauwatosa.