Classic Caipirinha:
- 2 to 3 shots Cachaça
- 1 Lime
- 1 heaping tblsp of sugar
- Ice
- Rocks glass, or something fancy like the glass shown here.
- Muddler. Really, a wooden spoon does just fine too. But wood okay?
Cut the lime into eighths. Chuck them into the glass with the sugar. Bash, twist, and play with your citrus until the sugar is dissolved into the lime juice. Add ice. Then the Cachaça. Stir well. But don’t shake this thing okay? Shaking is not always the answer.
A couple of notes. Recipes vary wildly for Cairpirinhas because of variation in the acidity levels of available limes. Different Cachaças can also be sweeter, drier, lighter, heavier, you know…different. What I’m trying to say is that you’re going to need to taste and adjust until it’s perfect.
If it’s too strong or add lime juice. If it’s too sweet, add more Cachaça. If it’s too sour, add more Cachaça. If you want to get wasted, well, finish your first one and then make another.
The final product should be very smooth, a bit sweet, a bit sour, devilishly refreshing, and a lot stronger than it tastes. But it shouldn’t just taste like Cachaça. I do encourage you to try it straight as well, it’s quite delicious, and you can play around with making Batidas, in which you basically replace the lime element of the Caipirinha with another fruit.
Like Guava, Passionfruit, Orange, Ginger, Berries, or whatever is actually ripe and good.
Enjoy the changing season my friends, and toast to the end of Minnesota’s ghastly 2007-2008 ass-violating cold winter.
