The Caipirinha

How have we not had this before! The delight that is the Caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail. The Caipirinha, like a daiquiri is all about personal taste and every recipe & how to video, has its own unique quantities of the 3 simple ingredients.

2 oz Cachaca (best if chilled first)
1 lime
Sugar

Take your lime and cut into quarters then carefully cut out the white vein of pith that runs down the centre, you don’t want that added bitterness in your drink.

Add your lime quarters to your glass flesh side up. I made this straight in the glass, you can if you prefer use a mixing glass and pour out. You do need to give things a good bash so if you have particularly delicate glassware a mixing glass or shaker tin might be best first.

Now this is where the disagreements begin, the recipe I used called for powdered sugar, others call for granulated sugar, yet others still for brown sugar. It is all about what tastes good for you so I suggest several round of serious testing and experimentation, that is certainly what I plan to do this weekend. Sinead found this a bit tart so added a drop more sugar and it was perfect for her, I on the other hand loved the extreme limeyness which is a odd switch for us as usually I have the sweeter tooth.

I used two bar spoons of powdered sugar straight in the glass, using your muddler give everything a good squish, get all the juice out of the limes and make sure all your sugar is dissolved. Add a few cubes of cracked ice and give everything a good stir. Retrieve your cachaca from the fridge and pour two ounces straight into your glass and add more cracked ice. Stir again to get everything suitably mingled and if you can possibly fit more ice in chuck it on top.