Cachaça
Cachaça or cashasa (pronounced ka SHA sa, IPA: /ˌkaˈʃasɐ/) (also called pinga, branquinha, caninha, aquela que matou o guarda, caxa, aguardente, cana or chacha) is the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil, made from sugarcane juice (also called garapa). The legal definition of cachaça says "cachaça is the product of the distillation of the fermented sugarcane juice, with alcohol strength between 38% and 51% by volume. Up to 6 gr per liter of sugar can be added".
Cachaça is often said to differ from rum in that it made from sugarcane juice while rum is made from molasses. However, as with many other simplified or simulated manufacturing processes (to save money) a number of rum distillers use sugarcane juice instead of molasses to make their rums, and then add other ingredients to simulate the effect the molasses would have had on the product.
Cachaça is the 4th most distilled spirit of the world (after vodka, rum and soju, in that order), with 1.3 billion liters produced each year. Only 1.5% of this production is exported (mainly to Portugal, Paraguay and Germany). Outside Brazil, cachaça is used almost exclusively as an ingredient in tropical drinks, with the caipirinha being the most famous cocktail.
Production
There are two types of cachaça: artisanal and industrial.
Artisanal cachaças are produced by thousands of small mills spread all over the country, with Minas Gerais's state respected as the best source. Traditionally, the fermentation agent is a maize flour called "fubá" and the distillation unit is a copper pot still. The cachaça comes from the pot stills in 3 batches: "head", "core" and "tail". Most of the makers take only the "core", discarding the other two which have undesirable components.
Then the cachaça is either bottled or stored in wood barrels for ageing. The cachaça is aged in barrels made from a great variety of native or exotic trees such as chestnut, umburana, jequitibá, ipê, grápia, balsam wood, almond, jatobá, guanandi, brazilwood, cabreúva, tibiriçá, garapeira, cherry, and oak. Makers of artesanal cachaça usually bottle their own product, selling directly to the market (consumers, bars, restaurants, supermarkets, etc.). Domestically, artisanal cachaças are mostly drunk straight by consumers from the higher economic classes of society, or made into caipirihnhas with sugar and lime.
Industrial cachaças are made by medium-sized and big mills mostly located in the countryside of the São Paulo and Ceará states. The industrial cachaça makers use column stills to process the fermented sugarcane juice ("continuous distillation process"). The product is then sold as a raw material to cachaça bottlers such as "51", "Velho Barreiro", "Tatuzinho", "Pitu", "21", "Colonial". The bottlers adjust the cachaças to their standards by adding or removing components. Most of the time, industrial cachaças are not aged, being drunk straight by the lower economic classes. There are exceptions such as brands Ypioca and Sapupara, whose cachaça is 100% produced from their own estate and then aged in wood barrels.
The most "powerful" caninha brand, known by its high alcoholic grade (55%), is the "Cachaça 3 Múinho", made in Itajubá, MG, by Maurão Gamemania Imports.
History
Cachaça was invented by the first Portuguese settlers of Brazil, in the region around the town of São Vicente, sometime between 1532 and 1548. Workers at local sugar mills first discovered that the sugarcane juice (garapa), cooked and left standing, would "sour" (ferment) and turn into a mild alcoholic beverage. The product, disparagingly named cagaça, was consumed by slaves, as a cheap substitute for the Indians' cauim. Soon someone had the idea of distilling it, and thus cachaça was born.
Cachaça distilleries multiplied through colonial Brazil during the 16th and 17th centuries. Portugal eventually took notice and, in order to protect the market for Portuguese-made grappa (bagaceira), tried several times to outlaw the manufacture and consumption of the new spirit. In 1756, after a century of failure to suppress it, the Crown gave up and levied a tax on cachaça. This tax brought substantial revenue to the Treasury, and contributed to the reconstruction of Lisbon, which had been just devastated by an earthquake followed by a tsunami (1755 Lisbon earthquake).
Currently there are more than 4,000 different brands of cachaça available in Brazil. Early in its history it was consumed mainly by Africans, peasants, and members of the lower class. As is often the case, elitists considered it a low drink, unfit for exclusivist bars and tables. However, the finer points of the product gained wider and wider appreciation, and it is now a very popular drink, considered by some to be in the same class as whiskey and wine. The most prized brands are produced in São Paulo, Ceará, Pernambuco, and Minas Gerais. The Brazilian government and producer associations have recently acted to promote the export of cachaça.
Drinking cachaça
Cachaça, like rum, has two varieties: white and yellow. The yellow one is aged inside wood barrels and usually is drank pure and rarelly used in drinks.
The traditional way to drink pure cachaça (white or yellow) is to sip it gently in a very small glass (approx. 50ml) tasting every bit. Cachaça is best tasted slowly. Some cachaça tasters let the drink linger inside their mouths in order to savor the aftertaste.
An alternative way to drink cachaça is to put it inside a short and slim glass called martelinho ("little hammer"), and drink in one single shot. It's very popular as bar games and contests. Often some lime juice is added to cachaça as well as honey, cinnamon (called canelinha), and other spiceries and typical ingredients. Bits of brown sugar cake (rapadura) are sometimes eaten between glasses.
Cachaça is commonly consumed as caipirinha, a popular Brazilian cocktail containing crushed lime, ice, and sugar. Usually they are simply served on ice but can also be served frozen, much like margaritas.
Another drink with cachaça is batida. The cachaça is mixed with fruit juice, ice and sugar, sometimes also with sweet condensed milk and sour cream. Passion fruit and coconut are the most common flavors.
A hot drink very popular in Festa Junina is quentão. It is maden of boiled cachaça, ginger and spiceries.
Rabo-de-galo is a drink maden of cachaça and red vermouth.
References
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External links
- Cachaça Fazenda Mae De Ouro
- Museu da Cachaça
- O Álbum Virtual de Rótulos de Garrafas de Cachaça na Net (The first Web site dedicated to the cachaça label. In English + português. O primeiro espaço na Internet dedicado ao rótulo de cachaça.)
- Cachaça Gabriela - Orgânic