Coconuts are often hailed as one of the most useful crops where all the by-products have their own purpose. Enter sugarcane. Along with the obvious use – sugar –sugarcane has provided us with a lot of delicious and useful products including a few alcoholic beverages the whole world is grateful for. We all know rum and most of India has worshipped at the alter of Old Monk at least once in their lives, but today let’s get to know it’s cousin over in Brazil.
Cachaça (pronounced ka-sha-sa/kə-ˈshä-sə) - is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented sugarcane juice. It is the national drink of Brazil and is often used in the country's national cocktail, the caipirinha. Cachaca is typically clear, but it can also be aged, which gives it a golden colour. It has a sweet, fruity flavour and a slightly spicy aroma. Similarly to rum, it’s also made from the sugarcane plant and is distilled from fermented sugarcane juice. Unlike rum, however, it’s made from the juice itself rather than molasses which is a boiled-down, caramelised version of the juice.
The resulting liquor contains anywhere between 38 and 54 per cent ABV and packs quite a punch. Some distillers choose to sweeten the beverage with a little sugar but no more than 6 grams per litre. Anything above that needs to legally be labelled ‘sweetened Cachaça’. The variation, ‘aged Cachaça’ can only be labelled thus if at least half of the liquor has been aged for a year or more.
The spirit has a long – albeit dark – history that dates back over 400 years. It was originally consumed by slaves looking for ways to numb their pain and also fuel up their long days of work. In 1663, sugar manufacturer João Fernando Vieira enforced a daily dose of Cachaça for every one of his slaves before they began their day’s work. The governor of Brazil Minas Gerais even called Cachaça the ‘drink of basic foodstuffs’ and deemed that it should not be restricted to slaves. The name itself comes from the African slaves who worked in the sugarcane mills. They named the foam on the top of the vats of boiling sugarcane ‘Cachaça’.
Although it had humble beginnings, the wealthier classes in Brazil soon started to appreciate the liquor and it quickly became one of the country’s most popular products. So much so that the invading Portuguese grew wise and banned it on June 12th, 1744 – a day that has now been deemed National Cachaça Day. It made the drink a symbol of national pride.
Today, cachaça is still consumed mainly in Brazil but it’s slowly growing in popularity around the world. It’s also the core ingredient in the cocktail the Caipirinha which has long been served at bars in many countries globally.