# How should we drink Cachaça? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724 "2011-11-12T21:17:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/1 "2011-11-12T21:17:21Z")
Our next door neighbors gifted us with a bottle of Vereda Tropical Cachaça when they came over for dinner a couple of months ago, and it’s still just sitting here because we don’t know how to drink it. I’ve read random drink ideas I found on Google, but I’d rather have some recommendations from the Dope on how to drink it. (I generally prefer recommendations to random internet recipes for anything.) So… anyone have experience with this stuff? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/2 "2011-11-12T21:32:20Z")
The most common application would be the [Caipirinha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha). It’s like a mojito without the mint. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/3 "2011-11-12T21:49:16Z")
Yeah, I wouldn’t make anything except caipirinhas with it, but that’s only because if I had any cachaca I’d make caipirinhas in preference to any other drink on the planet. God I love those things. Use crushed ice. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/4 "2011-11-12T22:07:51Z")
According to my liquor store guy, a caipirhina is made by pouring a shot of cachaca into a glass and… _Keep adding limes and sugar till it kills the taste._ I happen to like caipirihinas, but cachaca is only a hippity hop step from moonshine. ---
**Author:** ![Toffe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@Toffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toffe)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/5 "2011-11-12T22:19:02Z")
The standard way to drink cachaça, as noted above, is in a caipirinha. Easy to make: crush lime wedges in a glass or a punch bowl, mix with crushed ice, sugar, and cachaça. No water apart from the ice. Alternatively, there’s the caipifruta - basically a caipirinha where you substitute a fruit juice for the limes. I like the passion fruit version. The best I’ve had was a little different: cachaça, crushed ice, passion fruit juice concentrate, and condensed milk. Or you could just drink it straight - I do, on occasion. It’s like non-spiced rum (obviously, since cachaça is basically Brazilian rum), but with a stronger taste. Lots of people don’t like it, though. Like vodka, or Scandinavian akvavit, there’s now a strong, small community that gets fanatical about cachaça-tasting and about finding small breweries with low, handmade production, and about homebrewing. Well, for the really adventurous, there’s another drink I make on occasion, which I’ll write about even though you almost certainly won’t find the stuff to make it: chimarrão with cachaça. Chimarrão is a tea-like drink made from _erva mate_, a green herb native to Paraguay. You put the _erva_ in a _cuia_, which is a cup made from a gourd, until it’s half-full, with the _erva_ against the side. Then you add hot water from a thermos and drink the infusion through a _bomba_, which is a sort of straw made from steel. For the version I make with cachaça, I simply fill the thermos to about 10-20% with cachaça beforehand; adds to the flavour, sort of like putting a little Irish in your coffee. It’s also a great way of making a decent chimarrão when your only _erva_ is of low quality, which is a problem I had for a little while. On preview: cachaça basically _is_ moonshine. Just a month or so ago I had some made in a guy’s bathtub, and it was pretty good. It’s where cachaça gets its other popular name from, “pinga” (from the verb “pingar”, “to drip”, as in dripping from the still). Another common name is, of course, “o diabo” - “the devil” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/6 "2011-11-12T22:59:51Z")
I wouldn’t say cachaca is the same as rum - it isn’t. Both are made from sugar, but rum is made from molasses; cachaca is made from the fresh cane juice. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/7 "2011-11-12T23:54:37Z")
> [@Toffe](#): > > Well, for the really adventurous, there’s another drink I make on occasion, which I’ll write about even though you almost certainly won’t find the stuff to make it: chimarrão with cachaça. Chimarrão is a tea-like drink made from _erva mate_, a green herb native to Paraguay. You put the _erva_ in a _cuia_, which is a cup made from a gourd, until it’s half-full, with the _erva_ against the side. Then you add hot water from a thermos and drink the infusion through a _bomba_, which is a sort of straw made from steel. For the version I make with cachaça, I simply fill the thermos to about 10-20% with cachaça beforehand; adds to the flavour, sort of like putting a little Irish in your coffee. It’s also a great way of making a decent chimarrão when your only _erva_ is of low quality, which is a problem I had for a little while. If you live in a place where you can get cachaça in the U.S., it shouldn’t be too hard to find _erva mate_, better known as _yerba mate_ in Spanish. Pretty much any Spanish grocery store should carry it. Yerba mate with cachaça sounds pretty good, but I don’t have the patience to make mate. By the way, I am impressed you drank something made in a bathtub. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/8 "2011-11-13T00:18:31Z")
> [@Toffe](#): > > Well, for the really adventurous, there’s another drink I make on occasion, which I’ll write about even though you almost certainly won’t find the stuff to make it: chimarrão with cachaça. Chimarrão is a tea-like drink made from _erva mate_, a green herb native to Paraguay. You put the _erva_ in a _cuia_, which is a cup made from a gourd, until it’s half-full, with the _erva_ against the side. Then you add hot water from a thermos and drink the infusion through a _bomba_, which is a sort of straw made from steel. Meh I can get a bomba and yerba mate at my local co op in Willimantic. ---
**Author:** ![Toffe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@Toffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toffe)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/9 "2011-11-13T00:33:39Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > If you live in a place where you can get cachaça in the U.S., it shouldn’t be too hard to find _erva mate_, better known as _yerba mate_ in Spanish. Pretty much any Spanish grocery store should carry it. Yerba mate with cachaça sounds pretty good, but I don’t have the patience to make mate. > > By the way, I am impressed you drank something made in a bathtub. Seriously. I was thinking more that you’re not likely to get a real _cuia_ and _bomba_ overseas - could be wrong, of course. Making chimarrão in a glass or other container is a Paraguayan thing I think, and strikes me as heresy. OTOH, _mate_ - by which I mean the drink in the Brazilian sense, which is different from chimarrão, and is used as a term distinct from the _erva_ they’re both made from - is best cold, with lemon. (In this case it’s a brown drink, very like ice tea. Chimarrão is typically green.) I wouldn’t mix that with cachaça. On preview: **aruvqan** , that’s interesting, I’ve never seen \*cuias \*overseas. But then, although I’ve travelled a great deal, I haven’t spent a lot of time in any places with significant Brazilian populations AFAIK. Besides, it’s only a few years ago that I first heard of chimarrão and could recognise a _cuia_. As for the bathtub pinga, at least the guy claimed he’d built a still inside the bathtub, and his friend said he’d been perfecting the process for a year. Back when I lived in Tanzania (too young to have started drinking), my sister would regularly drink the local hooch - _changaa_, I think it was called - which was made from tossing a bunch of fruits into a bathtub with the drain stoppered. Let it ferment for a month or two, then toss out the bits, and add ethanol if desired. Apparently it was a way for poor housewives to make an extra buck. One time the moonshiner added formaldehyde instead of ethanol, leading to about a dozen deaths and many more people blinded. Compared to that, I think my fascination with cachaça, slivovitz, and regional vodkas and akvavits is harmless 😛 And now, just for fun, the carnival march “Cachaça não e agua” (“cachaça isn’t water”): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jet3SRvjw&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jet3SRvjw&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Novalyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@Novalyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novalyne)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/10 "2011-11-13T02:50:49Z")
Most caipirinhas use lime, but I am also partial to caipirinha de abacaxi (pineapple) or uva (grape). The only cachaca I have found in the states is pretty harsh stuff, but when I traveled to Brazil they had a much wider selection, some of which were pretty good straight. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/11 "2011-11-13T06:00:32Z")
My wife lived in South Florida in the late 1980s; her best friend at that time was dating a Brazilian guy, whose family owned a Brazilian restaurant. Their restaurant didn’t have a liquor license, but if you knew the owners, you could order a “coffee”, which was a caipirinha in a coffee mug. 😃 I recently found cachaça at our neighborhood liquor store here in suburban Chicago…my wife was thrilled, and went into a caipirinha kick for some time. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/12 "2011-11-13T06:19:26Z")
Caipirinha are delicious - far and away my favorite drink. I’ve yet to find any other way to use Cachaça that isn’t awful. It’s nearly undrinkable on its own, it hasn’t worked with anything else I’ve tried to mix it with (admittedly, I haven’t tried pineapple). And yet, Caipirinhas are really and truly delicious. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/13 "2011-11-13T13:02:56Z")
> [@Toffe](#): > > On preview: **aruvqan** , that’s interesting, I’ve never seen \*cuias \*overseas. But then, although I’ve travelled a great deal, I haven’t spent a lot of time in any places with significant Brazilian populations AFAIK. Besides, it’s only a few years ago that I first heard of chimarrão and could recognise a _cuia_. Willimantic is a college town, and as such has a population of trustafarians, so our [co-op](http://willimanticfood.coop/) is half way between the old classic hippie grow your own veggies and be self sufficient and trustafari got to have my wierd free trade third world products. Works for me, I have a friend who adores free trade mexican hot chocolate pucks and I can get them for her there for birthdays and christmas, I can buy my gallon jug of Dr Bronner soap and grab a bag of hummus chips or a pound of lentils. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/14 "2011-11-13T13:11:07Z")
> [@Toffe](#): > > I was thinking more that you’re not likely to get a real _cuia_ and _bomba_ overseas - could be wrong, of course. Making chimarrão in a glass or other container is a Paraguayan thing I think, and strikes me as heresy. OTOH, _mate_ - by which I mean the drink in the Brazilian sense, which is different from chimarrão, and is used as a term distinct from the _erva_ they’re both made from - is best cold, with lemon. (In this case it’s a brown drink, very like ice tea. Chimarrão is typically green.) I wouldn’t mix that with cachaça. Many places that sell yerba mate will also sell the cuia (mate in Spanish) and bomba (bombilla in Spanish). Yerba mate is practically the state religion in Uruguay and Argentina and you will find it wherever there are immigrants. (And yes, mate in the Spanish sense is a hot and green drink.) I admire your sister’s bravery. Maybe she can start a pruno wine trail thing and visit prisons. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/15 "2011-11-13T13:19:17Z")
I drank it recently with both orange and lemon soft drinks as a mixer. Both yummy. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/16 "2011-11-13T13:45:15Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Many places that sell yerba mate will also sell the cuia (mate in Spanish) and bomba (bombilla in Spanish). Yerba mate is practically the state religion in Uruguay and Argentina and you will find it wherever there are immigrants. (And yes, mate in the Spanish sense is a hot and green drink.) > > I admire your sister’s bravery. Maybe she can start a pruno wine trail thing and visit prisons. 😛 Mate is also the state religion of Paraguay. Their specialty is Terere that mixes yerba mate with orange juice. And I really don’t know why mate hasn’t conquered the world yet. In Argentina you can find them in tea bags: you don’t need the bombilla and all that stuff. Its actually pretty good. And caipirinha is the best drink in the world. If you don’t believe me have one with a brazilian girl (or boy) in one of their many, many beaches. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/17 "2011-11-14T15:52:54Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I’ve yet to find any other way to use Cachaça that isn’t awful. It’s nearly undrinkable on its own, it hasn’t worked with anything else I’ve tried to mix it with (admittedly, I haven’t tried pineapple). And yet, Caipirinhas are really and truly delicious. Cachaça is one of those liquors that’s on a very wide spectrum from rot-gut to premium— much like tequila and scotch, there are some very fine (and expensive) aged varieties available in Brazil. I found even a mid-priced cachaça to be quite drinkable on its own, last time I was in Brazil. Unfortunately, the only cachaças I’ve seen for sale here in the U.S. have been on the rot-gut end of the spectrum, albeit still pretty expensive. Fine for caipirinhas or other fruit-based drinks, but pretty harsh to drink straight. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/18 "2011-11-14T16:06:04Z")
I like yerba mate (with lots of sugar) as an alternative to coffee or tea… the Atlanta Jugglers Association is known for always keeping a pot of it brewing, which is where I was introduced to it. So are you saying that the Cachaça mixed with it is a hot drink? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/19 "2011-11-14T16:07:16Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Cachaça is one of those liquors that’s on a very wide spectrum from rot-gut to premium— much like tequila and scotch, there are some very fine (and expensive) aged varieties available in Brazil. I found even a mid-priced cachaça to be quite drinkable on its own, last time I was in Brazil. Unfortunately, the only cachaças I’ve seen for sale here in the U.S. have been on the rot-gut end of the spectrum, albeit still pretty expensive. Fine for caipirinhas or other fruit-based drinks, but pretty harsh to drink straight. Quite right-most of the brands sold in the SA are really low end ones. Which is sad, because the better ones are much better. Of course, when mixed as a caipirinha, you cannot tell the difference..untill next morning. ---
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724/20 "2011-11-14T16:41:29Z")
Here in Brazil we use _cachaça_, which most people will call _pinga_, only for \*caipirinhas \*when mixing a drink. The high end stuff can be drunk neat, as can the low end stuff if you don’t care, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There’s huge variations in price and quality: I can buy a liter of \*cachaça \*for 2$ or 150$ and you really taste the difference. Personally, I’m not a huge fan and usually go for either gin or whisky. _Caipirinhas_ made with vodka are also very popular in Brazil and are sometimes called _caipiroskas_, I actually prefer them to the cachaça variety. _Caipirinhas_ made with sake are also popular, especially if made with strawberries or kiwis, but I can’t stand the stuff. \*Mate \*is drunk differently in different places in Brazil. In the south you drink it as \*chimarrão \*in the way described in this thread, which is the same as it’s drunk in Argentina (I can’t speak for the other places). A bit more to the north and keeping to the west people drink _tereré_, which uses a different cut of the leaves. You still use a _bomba_ to drink _tereré_, but with cold water and usually in a horn cup (which isn’t essential in any way). In the rest of the country people just call it _mate_ and brew it as any tea; that’s usually served cold and maybe with some lime juice. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-we-drink-cachaca/602724.md?page=2)