Caipirinha and its variations, such as caipiroska (with vodka) or saquerinha (with sake), are just a tiny sample of popular Brazilian drinks.

Follow me in the discovery of other national specialties. Most of them carry cachaça (also known as pinga, aguardente de cana, caninha or “a brava”/”the nasty one”):

1. Batidas – This mix of cachaça, fruit, ice and lots of sugar is a favorite in the kiosks that line the Brazilian coast. You name the fruit – maracujá (passion fruit), coco (coconut), morango (strawberry). In fact, caipirinha is just one more type of batida.

2. Meia de seda (probably named after pantyhose because it is a girlie drink) – Those with a really sweet tooth can try this mix of 1/3 of gin, 1/3 cacao liqueur (made with the fruit, not cocoa), 1 spoon of sugar and cinnamon (some recipes abolish the gin or substitute it by rum). Sort of old-fashioned, a souvenir of the golden fifties.

3. Aluá – There are several recipes for this drink popular in the Northeast states (Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco, among others), that may or not be alcoholic. You mix one pineapple’s peel, two litters of water, brown sugar, cloves and grated ginger. The skin of the pineapple should be kept in water for a whole night to get fermented. The longer it remains in water, the more alcoholic the beverage. This water is strained and mixed to the other ingredients.

4. Cachaça pura – Cachaça, the Brazilian equivalent of rum, is made of the fermented sugarcane juice. There are probably a few thousand  brands, some extremely refined, some too bad to be mentioned. A recent contest promoted by cachaça experts chose the best artisan brands produced in the state of Minas Gerais (which  basically means in Brazil). The winners were Diva (from Divinópolis, a white cachaça), Pirapora (from the city of same name, an aged cachaça) and Áurea Custódio (from Ribeirão das Neves, a premium cachaça).

Also Playboy magazine published a cachaça ranking (here ordered from first to fifth place): Anísio Santiago/Havana (from the city of Salinas), Vale Verde (Betim), Claudionor (Januária), Germana (Nova União) and Magnífica (Vassouras). They are all from Minas Gerais, apart from the last one, from the state of Rio. And here you find a large list of Brazilian cachaças, including their origins and alcoholic degrees: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Lista_de_cacha%C3%A7as_do_Brasil

5. Think Green – This complex cocktail, by Rogério “Rabbit” Barroso, considered one of the best Brazilian bartenders, was one of the finalists of  the latest edition of the World Cocktail Competition. It includes Bacardi, Marie Brizard Lemon Grass, Midori, champagne and pineapple juice.

6. Porradinha – A classic among college students. Grown-ups tend to be ashamed of drinking this in public. You should fill half a metal cup with cachaça. Add a small amount of Sprite or some similar soda. Cover the cup with your hand, lift it and hit the table (that movement could be described as porradinha). The volume of the drink will grow quickly, so drink it in only one sip.

7. Submarino – Typical of the Southern states, mixes a dose of Steinhäger (a beverage made of juniper) and a cup of draft beer. Originally, German immigrants would drink both spirits separately, but simultaneously. In Brazil, we turn the cup with Steinhäger face down inside a larger cup. Then pour beer inside. The Steinäger “escapes” into the beer.

If you don’t drink alcohol, there are a few Brazilian drinks that have merits of their own:

1. Guaraná – The national soft drink is made of guaraná, an Amazonian fruit that is an energy booster – it has twice the caffeine of coffee beans. Guaraná, the soda, has very small amounts of guaraná, the fruit, though, unlike guaraná powder, sold in vitamin shops.

2. Juices – In the Amazon, try the ones made of cupuaçu, bacuri or açaí. In the Northeast, the options are limitless. Mango, cashew (the fruit, not the nut on top of it), siriguela, jaca (jackfruit), cajá. All of these are available in major cities all around the country (made of frozen pulp, in most cases).

3. Garapa – For those with a sweet tooth, the sugar cane juice is available in street markets practically everywhere in the country. Sometimes lime or pineapple are added to the beverage.

Brazilian born, French citizen, married to an American, Regina Scharf is the ultimate globetrotter. She graduated in Biology and Journalism from USP (Universidade de São Paulo) and has worked for Folha de S. Paulo, Gazeta Mercantil and Veja magazine as well as Radio France Internationale. Since 2004 she has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the US. She authored or co-authored several books in Portuguese on environmental issues and was honored by the 2002 Reuters-IUCN Press award for Latin America and by the 2004 Prêmio Ethos. You can read more by her at Deep Brazil – www.deepbrazil.com.

"Caipirinha, the most typical national drink of Brazil with an alcohol grading between 15 and 30%, at 20 degrees Celsius, elaborated with cachaça (sugarcane liquor), lime and sugar, can be blended with water if necessary to adapt the alcoholic grading", reads the official text published Friday in the Diário Oficial (Union's Gazette).

The purpose of the bill is to establish the guidelines of "identity and quality" to which all caipirinha elaborated in Brazil for domestic consumption or export must abide.

As far as ingredients the bill is somewhat flexible with the sugar which can be crystal or refined, and tolerates its total or partial replacement with glucose but never with synthetic or natural sweeteners.

Regarding cachaça the spirit from sugar cane, the bill establishes that it must respect quality and identity characteristics and standards. Lime can be dehydrated but lime juice must be present in the blend with a minimum proportion of one percent with at least 5% acidity.

Water is considered optional and its use is restricted exclusively to adapt alcoholic graduation to the 15 to 36 degrees strip margins. No mention of ice in spite of the fact most Brazilians have caipirinha cool.

The use of any ingredients that could alter the "natural sensory qualities" of the final spirit such as colorings is strictly banned. There's also a ban on bottling the drink in pharmaceutical type, syringe, vaporizers or blister type containers.

However the Agriculture Ministry rules published in Friday's official gazette fail to say what punishment awaits those responsible for illicit caipirinhas.

Mercopress

Cachaça is a relatively new-to-the-USA spirit that is introducing itself with a new mixed drink, the caipirinha (KYE-p'reen-ya), destined to be the next mojito. One of the main differences between cachaça and rum is that cachaça is made from sugar cane syrup instead of molasses.

The result is a drink that is much lighter and brighter than even white rum. Cachaça occupies a nice space on the South America spirits spectrum: it's wilder and more fruit-forward than rum, but not as wild as something like tequila.

The caipirinha actually represents the second wave of zippy, fruity, sexy drinks like the mojito. There are a hundred variations – lemon caipirinha, grapefruit, blood orange, pomelo, any fruit that will give you juice and zesty oil from the skin – since it uses the same classic South American technique used to make a mojito: muddling.

The caipirinha is composed mostly of lime juice with a little sugar, and this is a perfect enriching match with the lemon-lime character of cachaça.

"People are coming to me with cachaça," said Bubba Kassal, CEO of Crown Wine & Spirits, a huge retail chain in south Florida. "It's cachaça, cachaça, cachaça, coming out of the woodworks!"

Cachaça came ashore in the US, so to speak, in southern Florida, and much of the Brazilian beach vibe translates comfortably to Florida's beach culture. The premium cachaça brand Leblon especially staged an energetic launch all over the state.

The caipirinha's proliferation in Florida gives us a hint of what we'll see in the northeast, if not this summer then next. Kassal thinks the expansion of cachaça in the US is based on better marketing, not more cachaça.

"Cachaça has been around forever," he said, "and now we're seeing brands like Cuca Fresca and others that have mastered the American marketing." The market for cachaça is maturing quickly, he said, and today there are specialty cachaça labels that are already going mainstream with their marketing and advertising.

"Cachaça is appearing in other drinks now," Kassal said. "When it's in a strawberry daiquiri, it becomes a cachaça strawberry daiquiri. That's a sign of where the trend is going."

Cuca Fresca (an idiomatic expression that means "cool head", as in a relaxed person) is a brand that was created for the US market and launched last year, first in Florida, and now in the northeast.

"The producer, Aguardente Caribena, has been making cachaça for five generations now," said Phoenix Kelly-Rappa, partner in Cuca Fresca. "They use all artisanal methods with no mass production. The sugar cane is grown organically, though it's not certified organic, and the cachaça is processed there on the farm, double distilled and triple filtered."

They believe the distillation in traditional copper pots accounts for the purity of the product. "We believe in using the highest quality sugar cane. It's never burned, as some sugar cane is. That's one of the things that makes Cuca Fresca extremely smooth. It has a fresher, spicier taste to it, much lighter than rums from the Caribbean that are made from molasses."

Although cachaça is new to the US market, it is a drink that in Brazil goes back centuries. "Cachaça was originally made on plantations by slaves," said Kelly-Rappa, "and it has always been the people's drink. It's something that's relatively easy to make from something the people had a lot of: sugar cane. Making cachaça became very widespread, and today it's the national spirit."

Amazingly, cachaça is the number three distilled spirit on the planet behind vodka and the vodka-like soju from Korea. Cachaça is ahead of gin, rum, scotch, and other spirits on the world market. Somehow, we're only hearing about this phenomenon now.

"Some of the products that have been in the US in the past have not been quality cachaça. They were very harsh and not of good quality and that hurt cachaça and put people off," Kelly-Rappa said.

"Today there are premium cachaças available, and it's getting a good introduction by the caipirinha. Premium cachaça comes from production methods, from single batch production, blending techniques and barrel aging."

This same respect for traditional production is expressed in a partnership Cuca Fresca recently signed with the Rainforest Foundation.

"We're going to be donating a portion of all our proceeds to them and the projects they're doing in Brazil," Kelly-Rappa said.

"We wanted to give something back to the country, and we're very thrilled about that. This is the first time they've partnered with an alcohol beverage company, but they were very impressed with the authenticity of our product and decided to do it."

Spirits sales are up in the US more than 20%, according to Kelly-Rappa, and "interest is really high in drinks with fresh, intense, interesting fruit flavors like the caipirinha. It's a very lively, young drink that people love."

In Massachusetts, Cuca Fresca is distributed by L. Knife and Son in Kingston, and Roman Dombrowski, vice president, sees a great future in cachaça. "It's been a long time since a whole new product was introduced in America," he said.

"Last time was tequila, sometime in the '60s. People like Cuca Fresca have the marketing right, and it will be successful."

Right now, at the very beginning of the cachaça launch, most of Dombrowski's sales are to Brazilian restaurants and markets that carry a richness of South American products.

"Brazilian communities are very strong around Boston, and they want their traditional national drink. It's natural," he said. Dombrowski sees cachaça breaking in to mainstream bar menus.

"There are lots of exotic drinks that are made with cachaça," he said. "When you see the classics being made with cachaça that's a larger market."

Leblon is another premium cachaça that stands by a defiant motto: "Live, love, Leblon!" The web site liveloveleblon.com is a 24-hour party zone, and you get the feeling the real world of Leblon is not far behind that.

"I'm a wine guy," said Gerard Schweitzer, partner in Leblon. "I've always been closer to wine culture than anything else. Cachaça is much more akin to wine. The fresh cane juice that's fermented is called 'le vin,' or the wine. From here, the process is very similar to cognac production."

So similar in fact that the Leblon goes into French cognac casks for 90 days of barrel aging. Some cachaça is aged in barrels made from exotic native trees like balsam, almond, brazilwood, and many more.

"Some cachaça is aged in barrel for six years, ten years, even more," Schweitzer said. "The character of the wood becomes very strong at that point and you start to get intense anise aromas."

Schweitzer and his partners got into the cachaça business unexpectedly when one of them returned from a vacation to Brazil with a brainstorm, a brainstorm that may have come after drinking vast quantities of cachaça.

"We saw that cachaça was still really a peasant drink, like tequila was and vodka was 30 years ago," he continued. "There was an opportunity to create a super-premium cachaça that no one had considered."

Based on their research, all the biggest white spirits – gin, vodka, tequila – have gone through a recent period of iconic super-premium brands, all except rum.

"Nothing in rum has really grabbed the sophisticated palates of what we call 'cocktail nation', until cachaça. We asked ourselves what we could do with our cachaça to help."

One of the Leblon partners is Brazilian, and the plan was hatched on the beach in Rio. "He had great contacts in the cachaça world," Schweitzer said, "and we decided right then to make a premium cachaça for all the world to see, so they could experience how great it can be."

Schweitzer said the world is looking anew at Brazil: music, fashion, leisure, and food. He is determined to have cachaça out front when people re-discover Brazil.

"Cachaça is a category that's raised itself above the other newcomers," said Schweitzer. "People are taking cachaça to the next level, infusing Leblon with various fruits. Pineapple seems to be a favorite, but you can use cherries, peaches, anything."

Meia Lua (half moon), di Salinas, and Beleza de Minas (Minas state Beauty) are three cachaças distributed in Massachusetts by Rio's Wine and Liquors. Debbie Adler, vice president, says they're feeling the demand for this drink.

"There's definitely been a surge," she said. "If you go to Conti Liquors in Framingham, I'd guess there are 40-something cachaças on the shelf."

What makes cachaça different, Adler said, is that it is flexible. "You can have it straight or mixed. Some people compare it to rum like that, but it's unique," she said. "Sweeter and smoother than rum, and a fresher flavor."

Adler said the city of Salinas in south-central Brazil is "the Napa Valley of cachaça", and the source of the three cachaças they sell. "Other great cachaça comes from Salinas, not just ours," she added.

"But this is the area where the farms are, where the sugar cane is grown and everything is made. There are industrial cachaça producers, but not here."

As to the future of cachaça in the northeast and North America in general, Adler said, "Cachaça needs to be discovered by America. People ask if it's the next big thing, and in some ways, it's the big thing already worldwide, we just need to discover it here."

I'm not much of a mixed drink fan, or a distilled spirits guy. I'll have the occasional scotch or a glass of sourmash while I'm reading Faulkner. But I have completely fallen in love with the caipirinha ever since I had my first sip last fall in Argentina.

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CAIPIRINHA

2 oz. cachaça
1 lime, quartered
2 tbsp. superfine sugar
Place the quartered lime in a 10-ounce rocks glass and add the sugar.
Muddle lime and sugar together in the bottom of the glass.
Fill the glass with ice.
Add cachaça and stir.

BRAZILIAN MOJITO

When your parents know about something hot and new, that pretty much means it's not hot and new anymore. Everybody knows the mojito, but a big dose of cachaça makes last year's breakthrough drink new again.
2 oz. cachaça
1 lime, quartered
2 tsp. superfine sugar
3 fresh mint leaves
Club soda
Place lime, mint leaves, and sugar in a highball glass
and muddle together in the bottom of the glass.
Add crushed ice and cachaça.
Fill the rest of the glass with club soda and stir.
Garnish with a slice of lime.

POMEGRANATE CAIPIRINHA

Pomegranate is the rising star of the food world right now – note the ubiquitous pomegranate glazed everything on menus these days. Cachaça and pomegranate make a great match, going up the ladder of success arm in arm.
2 oz. cachaça
1 1/2 oz. pomegranate juice
1 lime, quartered
2 tbsp. superfine sugar
Place the quartered lime in a 10-ounce rocks glass and add sugar.
Muddle lime and sugar together in the bottom of the glass.
Fill the glass with ice.
Add cachaça and pomegranate juice and stir.
Garnish with lime.

CACHAí‡A COLA

My daughter calls me "50s Dad" when I drink this modernized version of "rum 'n' coke" while wearing Bermuda shorts. The citrusy lift of the cachaça really improves this classic.
2 oz. cachaça
Cola
1 lime, quartered
Pour cachaça into a highball glass filled with ice.
Top with cola and squeeze in lime quarters to taste.
Garnish with a lime slice.

After coming home and making elaborate caipirinhas, some in labor intensive sugar rimmed glasses, I am finding myself drawn to the simplest recipe today. Gold cachaça is so smooth and approachable,

I sometimes have it on the rocks with a big squeeze of lime whenever I'm too lazy to break out the muddler and make a proper one.

Here's the secret technique for great caipirinha: before you cut the limes, roll them around vigorously on the table top, pressing down and softening them up to release some of the juice while it's still inside the fruit.

Leblon is among a small handful of ultra-premium cachaças that have widened the category catering to top bars, restaurants, clubs and other high end destinations across the U.S.

In just one year's time, Leblon has become available for consumption and purchase in all domestic markets thanks to the growing popularity of the spirit's trendy cocktail, the caipirinha, which quickly has replaced the mojito as the "it" drink of the year.

Founder and CEO of Leblon, Steve Luttmann, detailed the brand's winning sales strategy by saying, "Leblon spearheaded the way for the cachaça category in the U.S. by first targeting the major metropolitan markets of Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

"By the end of 2006, as the words cachaça and caipirinha had spread into every major metropolitan area from coast to coast, we set about taking the brand national and have finally achieved our goal."

Recent national chain operators partnering with Leblon include Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, Texas de Brazil Churrascaria, and Elephant Bar Restaurants.

Presence at such high end destination spots boosts Leblon brand awareness further and opens doors to new key accounts and other national and international chains.

Taking the lead from the national chains, well-recognized high-end luxury resorts such as the Viceroy Hotel in Los Angeles, the Bellagio Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and both the San Ysidro Ranch and the Biltmore Four Seasons in Santa Barbara, California have also made a place for Leblon at their bars.

Broad and easy access to Leblon for home consumption is a priority for the company while simultaneously building the ultra premium cachaça category as a lucrative player in the U.S. spirits market. Leblon has also introduced the product to grocery chains and wholesalers including Bristol Farms, Safeway, Ralphs, and Albertson's stores in California.

"The demand for cachaça in the American marketplace is incredibly exciting to us," says Luttmann. "We are thrilled that Leblon can now find its way into the hands of top bartenders and discriminating drinkers across the country who are eager to satisfy this desire for an alternative to vodka and other traditional spirits."

Earlier this month, Leblon celebrated an important milestone in the company's history with the making of its one millionth caipirinha. The event was held at Porcão Churrascaria in New York City and hosted by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Leblon is an ultra-premium white cachaça inspired by its namesake and place of origin, Leblon Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The rum-like spirit, the most award-winning cachaça on the market, is made from fresh pressed Brazilian sugar cane that is then rested in cognac casks and blended. 

Cachaça is the main ingredient in the caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil, but also acts as a substitute for a variety of other cocktails made from vodka, tequila, and rum.

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For more information on Leblon cachaça visit www.liveloveleblon.com.