Caipirinha
Cachaça, muddled lime and sugar over crushed ice. Brazil's national cocktail: sharp, strong and rough-edged.
- Time
- 5 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Glass
- Rocks glass
- Strength
- 2 UK units
How to make a Caipirinha
- Cut the lime. Quarter the lime and cut out the white pith in the middle, then halve each piece. The pith adds bitterness you do not want.
- Muddle with sugar. Put the lime and sugar in a rocks glass and press with the back of a spoon for about 15 seconds, until the sugar has mostly dissolved into the juice. Do not pulverise the peel.
- Add the cachaça. Pour in the cachaça and stir to mix.
- Pack with ice. Fill the glass with crushed ice, stir once from the bottom, and serve straight away. It should look cloudy and taste sharp and sweet at once.
- Glass
- Rocks glassNo rocks glass? Any short, sturdy tumbler.
- Ice
- Crushed ice
- Garnish
- A lime wedge on the rimOr: None needed.
What you need to make a Caipirinha
Bottles we'd use
- CachaçaYpióca or Leblon are easy to find in the UK. Leblon is the smoother, Ypióca the more rustic.Find it on Amazon
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The Caipirinha story
The caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail. The usual story is that it began as a rural drink of cachaça, lime, garlic and honey, taken as a cold remedy in the early 20th century, and that the garlic and honey were gradually dropped in favour of sugar and ice. The details are hard to check.
Cachaça is distilled from fresh sugarcane juice, not molasses, which gives it a grassy, funky flavour that rum does not have. You muddle whole lime with sugar, and the oils in the peel are part of the drink. Gentle muddling keeps the bitterness under control.
Caipirinha: your questions answered
What is in a Caipirinha?
A Caipirinha is made with 50 ml cachaça and caster sugar. Garnish: a lime wedge on the rim.
How strong is a Caipirinha?
Made to this recipe, a Caipirinha contains about 2 UK units of alcohol per drink. That is worked out from typical bottle strengths, so it changes with the bottles you use. UK guidelines advise not regularly drinking more than 14 units a week.
What glass do you serve a Caipirinha in?
Serve a Caipirinha in a rocks glass over ice. No rocks glass? Any short, sturdy tumbler.
