Make a Caipirinha

The caipirinha (kai-per-REEN-ya), made from cachaça, lime, and sugar, is Brazil’s national cocktail. Try one, and you’ll see why. The liquor used – cachaça (ka-SHAH-suh) – is distilled form sugarcane juice, giving it a fresh, earthy flavor that sets the caipirinha apart from the similar daiquiri, which is made with rum. And the basic recipe for the caipirinha can be easily varied to create a dizzying number of delicious mixed drinks.

Ingredients

Traditional Caipirinha

• 2-4 lime wedges (to taste)
• 1-2 teaspoons sugar (to taste)
• 1 cup of crushed or cubed ice
• 1.5-2.5 oz. of cachaça (to taste)

Steps

Making a Traditional Caipirinha

1. Slice your lime. Cut it in half, then into quarters. Use the slices from approximately one quarter of the lime in the drink – 3 to 4 slices. Brazilian recipes typically call for more lime: ½ to even a whole small lime. Adjust the amount to your taste.
2. Put the limes and sugar in a glass. It is preferable to use a rocks glass (aka a lowball glass). Use 2 teaspoons of sugar for a sweeter drink, one for a drink with more of the cachaça flavor.
   • American bartenders prefer raw sugar,.
   • Refined white sugar is usually used in Brazil.
   • You can substitute 1 or 2 oz. of simple syrup (50/50 sugar and water by volume) for the sugar.
3. Muddle the sugar and lime. Muddle them by pressing down and twisting repeatedly with a muddler – a long pestle shaped like a miniature baseball bat. Crush the limes just enough to release their juice. If you mash them too much, your drink will be bitter.
   • If you don’t have a muddler, just use the back of a spoon.
4. Add the ice. Crushed ice is best, though cubed will work fine.
5. Add the cachaça and stir. Recommendations from American bartenders range from 2 oz. (a little over a shot) for a sweeter, tarter drink, to 2.5 oz. (about two shots) for a stronger drink. Brazilian recipes, which are typically heavier on lime and lower on alcohol, usually call for 1.7oz (50ml).
6. Serve with the lime wedges in the drink. Enjoy!

Experimenting with Different Flavors

1. Try a different type of alcohol. A true caipirinha is always made with cachaça, but in Brazil, you’ll find a variety of other takes on the national drink employing different alcohols. If you don’t have any cachaça on hand, try one of these:
   • Substitute vodka to make a caipiroska. Caipiroskas mix very well with different fruit pulps.
   • Substitute white rum for a caipirissima. Rum is a sugar based alcohol like cachaça (from molasses, rather than sugarcane juice) and produces a similar, though less earthy flavor. Because of its simpler flavor profile, rum mixes slightly better with fruit than cachaça.
   • Substitute sake for a caipisake. These are best made following the traditional recipe, as sake loses its particular flavors and aromas when mixed with fruit.
2. Substitute a different fruit for the lime, or add fruit to the traditional recipe. Pretty much any fruit will work in a caipirinha. Pick ones that you like or that are in season. Here are some popular fruits, with tips on how to add them:
   • Tangerine – Substitute ½ a tangerine for the lime to make a caipirinha de tangerina.
   • Strawberry – Substitute 4-5 quartered strawberries for the lime.
   • Passion fruit – Substitute for lime. Take 1 small passion fruit or ½ a large one, cut it in half crosswise and scrape the pulp in a glass.
   • Pomegranate – Add 4 teaspoons of pomegranate seeds to a caipirinha made with 2 slices of lime. Muddle the seeds with the lime and sugar.
   • Watermelon – Puree a cup of watermelon (seeds removed) in a food processor, and add it to a traditional caipirinha along with the cachaça.
   • Grapes – Muddle 7 seedless grapes along with 2 lime slices and the sugar.
   • Kiwi – Add one peeled and chopped kiwi to a caipirinha made with ½ a lime. Muddle the kiwi with the lime and sugar.
   • Pineapple – Add 2 tablespoons of crushed pineapple along with the cachaça in a traditional caipirinha.
   • Raspberries – Muddle 6 raspberries along with the lime and sugar.
   • Kumquats – Muddle 5 kumquats along with the lime and sugar.
   • Guava – To make the popular caipirinha de goiaba, mix 100ml of guava juice and 2 teaspoons of condensed milk, then add the cachaça and ice. No extra sugar; the condensed milk and guava provide the sweetness.
3. Try a different sweetener instead of sugar. In the US raw sugar is standard, while Brazilians prefer refined sugar. But there are a number of other sweeteners that can subtly change the flavor of a caipirinha.
   • Honey – Substitute 1oz. of honey for the sugar.
   • Maple syrup – Substitute 1.5 teaspoons of maple syrup for the sugar.
   • Agave – Substitute 1 teaspoon of agave syrup for the sugar.
4. Use an infused cachaça. Especially when trying a fruity caipirinha, you can really bring out the flavor of the fruit with a fruit-infused cachaça. To infuse cachaça, dump the fruit and a bottle of cachaça into a glass container (not the original bottle). Seal and let sit in a dark place for 24-72 hours, then strain and return to the original bottle. Here are few ideas to get you started:
   • Pineapple infused cachaça – Peel and slice a whole pineapple and cover with a bottle of cachaça.
   • Raspberry infused cachaça – Add 3.5 cups of raspberries per bottle of cachaça.
   • Strawberry infused cachaça – Add 3 cups of strawberries per bottle of cachaça.
   • Chili infused cachaça – Add 1 large Anaheim chili and 3 serrano chilis per liter of cachaça. This infusion works well with a caipirinha made with cucumber slices muddled along with the sugar and lime.

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Sources and Citations

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