5 things you should know about Caipirinhas
One of the first things that many people want to do when they arrive in Rio, is try a genuine caipirinha (cai-pi-REE-nya). I was exactly the same when I got here – I had indulged in Brazil’s most famous cocktail many times in England, but now I wanted to know what a real one tasted like.
In the two years that have since passed, I have been researching this topic with (ahem) diligence and dedication and today I will share with you some of my findings.
1. Caipirinhas don’t necessarily contain cachaça
When you order a caipirinha in Rio, it is quite normal for your waiter to ask “With cachaça?”. The first time this happened I was confused. Would he ask me if I wanted gin in my gin and tonic? The reason is that many people here have their caipirinhas made with vodka instead of cachaça. “Aha!”, I hear you say, “But that is called a caipiroska (or caipivodka). A caipirinha, by definition, is made with cachaça”. Personally, I agree with you – it’s just that most of the waiters and bar staff in Rio don’t. Every so often, if you don’t specify, a caipivodka will arrive. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
2. Caipirinhas don’t necessarily contain lime
Of course, lime (limão) is the classic version, but there are plenty of other fruits to try. Common alternatives are strawberry, lychee and pineapple. We recently sampled a caipirinha made with tangerine and ginger and another made with pineapple and mint. Both were excellent!
A bar setup for caipirinhas. Lime and cachaça on the left, but notice the vodka, strawberries and pineapple on the right!
3. Ask for it with Pouco Açucar
If you’re ordering your caipirinha in a pé sujo then don’t forget to include this phrase (meaning “go easy on the sugar”) before the waiter disappears. Otherwise he may well return with something so cloyingly sweet that it borders on undrinkable.
Pineapple and mint caipirinha – a great flavour combination.
4. Splash out on a decent cachaça
A decent cachaça makes all the difference. It’s worth asking what they have because (here in Rio at least) if you don’t ask, the waiter will generally choose the cheapest cachaça they have (often the rough-as-old-boots, 51 brand). As a general rule, cachaças from Minas Gerais or anything described as artesanal will make for a more delicious drink.
In this image, focus is directly proportional to preference. Magnífica is great – 51 will leave you feeling a little blurry…
5. Be Careful…
A reminder: The caipirinha is made with a few spoons of fruit crushed with sugar and ice and then topped up with neat spirit. If we take the example of the classic recipe, that means your ‘mixer’ is the juice of one lime (around 2 tablespoons) and a little melted ice. My point? These things are lethal! Drinking more than two or three in an evening can lead to all kinds of shameful drunken behaviour [Examples I’ve witnessed/perpetrated: a failed attempt to get an entire bar to join in on a Beatles medley sing-along; dancing on tables in a bar that ‘wasn’t that kind of place’, impromptu suggestive posing whilst draping yourself over the front of a car while your friend takes pictures]
(that last one wasn’t me…)
Ok, I might be kind of a little bitch, but I like really, really sweet Caipirinhas. The sad thing is I’ve never had a caipirinha with cachaça, only with COCONUT RUM. WTF? Yeah, in college we improvise.
Anyway, you are right about them being extremely lethal. 2 of them in the middle of the day and I was toasssstteeedddd.
Ha ha! Alex, you and Brazil really were made for each other (I’m talking about your sweet tooth there – no idea what’s going on with the coconut rum though!). As for drinking in the day – that’s only allowed during carnaval! ;)
Great tips. The thing about the different fruits and alcohol, in a way, is similar to the fact that a beer isn’t just a beer in Britain. If you want to order one, you have to decide if you want a lager, an ale, a stout, a bitter, etc.
Where caipirinhas (and beer, come to think of it!) are concerned, I’m very happy to have to choose. The alternative reminds me of that joke about the restaurant / bar where you ask what wines they have and they reply “We’ve got red and and we’ve got white” :)
I don’t drink caipirinhas as much as I’d like (it doesn’t go with the weather here) but don’t you find some of the aged cachacas have enough of a distinctive taste to skew the original flavor of the cocktail? It’s like making a cocktail with whiskey: anything you add to it will still taste oakey (or peatey, which is worse :)).
Hmmm, I definitely agree where whisky is concerned – I’m not a fan of any whisky based cocktails that I can think of for exactly the reason you say. But with caipirinhas I do have a soft spot for magnífica (as served in Belmonte and my house!). I expect cachaça purists would call me a philistine, but what they hell – I often fry eggs in extra virgin olive oil and apparently that is wrong too – I guess I’m just a food rebel! ;)
Oh NO! Have you never had a Manhattan? Or an Old Fashioned?? Obviously you have to have a cocktail that is supposed to be made with whiskey, not, you know, vodka haha
Or maybe whiskey cocktails are a very American thing?
I do love cachaca mineira on the rocks partly because it reminds me of bourbon…
Ha ha! Sorry Eva! You sound shocked! ;) Actually I don’t have so much against bourbon based cocktails, it’s more when there is a strong ‘scotchy’ flavour that I struggle.
Haha, I mean….yes? But I´ve never even heard of a scotch-based cocktail, so what the hell do I know…
I’m guessing you went with “Across the Universe” in your sing-along attempt.
Beautiful song; although “Obladi-Oblada” probably would have garnered a larger following.
Anyway, just to brighten up the day —->
Oh yeah :-)
It would have been a good choice. In fact I went- I mean, ‘my friend’ went with Hey Jude. When asked why he wasn’t singing, a grumpy French guy said “I don’t speak English” – instantly proving himself to be not just a liar, but a liar with no sense of humour… ;)
Oh *the gall!*
Next time walk over to the jukebox and select Abba’s Waterloo :-)
Ha ha! :D Very good
A ha ha! Caipirinhas are lethal indeed. My first time ever in Brazil, still not speaking/understanding Portuguese well, I go to Festival de Alegre w friends, drink too much, next thing I know, I’m waking up in the local hospital w an IV hook-up in my arm. To this day, I won’t drink much more than a few glasses of wine at a time.
Ha ha! I was just about to say “I think we’ve all got a story like that” but then I realised that maybe not everyone is as bad as me (and apparently you!). In my version of that story I was taken home in a taxi and so had to go round to my friends house the next day and ask his Mum if she had found my shoes when she was clearing up after his ‘little party’. She had found them. I left feeling mortified…
Tom,
congratulations for your knowledge about caipirinha.
But don’t forget 51 isn’t cachaça, it’s “aguardente”.
Be happy,
Antonio
Hi Antonio! This is interesting – how are you defining the difference between cachaça and aguardente? Certainly ‘Pirassununga’ (in reality, Companhia Muller de Bebidas) claims that 51 is cachaça: http://www.pirassununga51.com.br/produtos_cachaca51.php.
Your point prompted me to look around and this sounds quite authoritative – what do you think?:
[taken from here]