I've been fortunate in that, over time, I've managed to amass quite a collection of cachaça. During the last days of my sabbatical, I decided to sit down with my liquor cabinet and take inventory.
The result is now publicly available in two forms. You can leave a comment on any of the database's cells if you sign in. If you just want to look, there's a read-only version.
Obviously, if you know something about these brands that I don't, please leave a comment. I haven't yet had time to Google the information needed to fill in some of the gaps.
Two cocktail recipes caught my eye and may be worth you trying out:
There is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds. - G.H. Hardy
The above quote has been resonating with me in my personal and professional life for some time now, ever since I came across it in 2013 while building a presentation related to the day job. It's a harsh and cranky statement from the famous mathematician, perhaps, but a reminder that it's somewhat easy to be a critic. It's a far more difficult matter to engage the mental and physical faculties required to bring something valuable into the world.
After about seven years of writing about cachaça and its potential in North America, I decided to immerse myself in what it takes to make a truly artisanal, handmade product. This journey led me to Rio das Flores, Brazil, about 3.5 hours away from Rio de Janeiro. My destination: Cachaça Werneck and its proprietors Eli and Cilene.
As readers know, I have visited many distilleries in Brazil—many more than the ones you find in this special section. To be perfectly honest, no other site aside from Werneck was considered.
It was absolutely not a question in terms of where I wanted to have an apprenticeship. (Read an early email interview with Eli Werneck.) First and foremost I felt that Eli and Cilene would be excellent teachers—their passion for their craft and level of care for the final product were very evident. Eli's earlier background in industry (as the former president of Volvo Penta Brasil) was also impressive to me and it gave me a sense for how he ran both the craft and business aspects of the company. When I earned a sabbatical from my employer after ten years of service, I knew that I wanted to spend time learning about cachaça at Werneck.
Since it was early in the season, I was able to participate in the following activities within a small but very busy distillery:
Obviously this leaves out processes like aging, standardization, and so on. Alas, I only had two weeks and even the least-rested product in the Werneck catalog stays in its vessel for three to four months. Also, the timing meant that producing distillate was the highest priority. Good cane, rich juice, and happy yeasts wait for no one.
Work and life has made this blog somewhat moribund, I know. I would bother apologizing if 1) I was able to make this hobby a priority in my public life, and/or 2) people were hanging on my every word here. Nevertheless, the backchannel conversations I've been a part of—emails, phone calls, and discussions that don't really have a place here on the site—have been illuminating and encouraging.
I foresee that the immediate future of this blog will largely focus on sharing bits of my apprenticeship at Werneck. Some aspects of that experience will be appropriate here, others perhaps in a different forum. I have pages of notes and well over a hundred photos.
Welcome back.
A while ago, I wrote somewhat belatedly about Snoop's investment in Cuca Fresca in the context of the related video ad. In the days and weeks since the original announcement, I had tried to track down something--anything--that wasn't already covered. No one in-or-around the Doggplex would give me much more than what was already out there. (Not that they'd bother with a tiny site like this one, but you miss all the shots you don't take, I figure.) Cuca Fresca's PR firm sent me the press release, dutifully enough, and pretty much told me that it was all I was going to get.
So, in an attempt to extract some amount of lulz from this effort, I took the press release and fed it through Gizoogle.Net. The site takes any URL or text you feed into it and translates it into the kind of gangsta argot that Snoop was largely responsible for introducing to suburban Caucasian youths in the 1990s.
The results (after the jump) are decidedly NSFW, but still fun.
Brazilian Spirit Cuca Fresca Partners wit Entertainment Icon, Snoop Ta Tha D-O-Double-Gizzle
Premium Artisanal Cachaça Launches Nationizzle Campaign wit Snoop Ta Tha D-O-Double-Gizzle To Define What it Means ta "Drink Different"
Cuca Fresca, tha premium artisanal Brazilian cachaça, is buckwild ta announce they partnershizzle wit entertainment icon Snoop Ta Tha D-O-Double-Gizzle, up in which dat schmoooove muthafucka has become a gangbangin' finger-lickin' dirty-ass shareholda n' shit. "Cuca Fresca" be a cold-ass lil common Brazilian expression dat means ta "have a cold-ass lil chill vibe" n' wit Snoop Ta Tha D-O-Double-Gizzle bein tha epitome of cool, tha pairin between both tha brand n' gangbangin muthafucka was a natural fit.
Snoop first became enamored wit Brazil while filmin tha vizzle fo' his 2003 hit cold lil' woo wop "Beautiful," wit Pharrell Williams. While blastin up in Rio de Janeiro, Snoop felt a immediate connection ta tha playas n' gamestyle of Brazil, fallin up in ludd wit they signature cocktail, tha Caipirinha. Throughout tha "Beautiful" vizzle, Snoop is shown trippin' off Brazil’s ubiquitous cocktail.
Snoop’s ludd of Brazil, combined wit his keen bidnizz sensibilitizzle n' mobilitizzle ta identify future trends, caused his ass ta take notice when da thug was introduced ta Cuca Fresca Cachaça. Previously lumped under rum despite its different thang n' provenance, Cachaça was designated as its own spirits category up in 2013 n' is poised fo' explosive growth up in tha lead up ta tha 2016 Olympics up in Brazil. With Snoop’s widespread appeal n' trendsettin ability, dat schmoooove muthafucka has amassed a unrivaled internationistic hustla base n' has one of tha phattest hood media followings ghettowide. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Snoop’s grand influence will continue ta spread tha word bout tha Cuca Fresca brand up in tha states n' beyond.
"I’m buckwild ta partner wit tha phat playas at Cuca Fresca," holla'd Snoop Ta Tha D-O-Double-Gizzle. "I have mad ludd fo' tha Brazilian playas n' culture, n' look forward ta spreadin tha word bout cachaça n' tha def vibez of tha ghetto ta tha US.
"Snoop’s hype fo' bein on tha cuttin edge of what tha fuck is def combined wit his fuckin lil' dedicated hustla base will help create ghetto-wide brand awarenizz fo' Cuca Fresca," explains Cuca Fresca CEO, Phoenix Kelly-Rappa. "We is thrilled ta be enterin tha fuck into dis unprecedented partnershizzle n' can’t wait ta make Cuca Fresca, n' cachaça, a household name."
Bout Snoop Ta Tha D-O-Double-Gizzle:
An entertainment icon n' wit mo' than 20 muthafuckin years up in tha bidnizz, Snoop continues ta pave tha way up in tha hip-hop industry, servin as a mentor ta nuff freshly smoked up n' established artists, n' you can put dat on yo' toast. Bein tha trendsetta he is, Snoop standz all up in tha forefront of ghettofab culture wit award-ballin n' multi-platinum mixtapes n' joints, critically hyped films n' televizzle shows, gamestyle shizzle, philanthropic efforts n' digital ventures, includin his YallTube original gangsta series "GGN Shit." Snoop defines entertainment history.
Bout Cuca Fresca:
Cuca Fresca is tha straight-up original gangsta n' only line of premium, artisanal cachaças. Founded up in 2006 by a cold-ass lil crew wit decadez of cachaça-makin experience, Cuca Fresca is one of tha leadin cachaça brandz up in tha ghetto n' has won nuff muthafuckin of tha industryz top honors, includin a Double Gold Medal from tha San Frankieco Ghetto Spirits Competition. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. Currently, Cuca Fresca is tha only cachaça wit a ready-to-drink Caipirinha cocktail on tha market.
Part of the package when you nab Snoop Dogg as a shareholder for your brand is, I'm guessing, access to him as your pitchman and spokesperson. Personally, I think it's preferable when your investor brings a lot more than money to the table. In this case, it takes the form of "being Snoop *#(@*ing Dogg."
Ad-wise, a much better score than Travolta, methinks.
(H/T: TheSpiritsBusiness)
I have a three-page "top ten" piece over at Shanghai's DRiNK Magazine, wherein I formally introduce the Middle Kingdom to our favorite spirit:
The first cachaças to come out of Brazil by way of export were cheap, rough, astringent, and guaranteed to deliver a fútbol-stadium-sized hangover. Fortunately, this is changing.
Read the rest at DRiNK, offered in parallel Mandarin/English translation.
During a backyard barbecue with some dear friends (during the free-time-starved days of B-school), I was introduced to a pretty cool entertaining idea: ready-made cocktails. Our hosts saved up glass Frappaccino bottles from Starbucks, cleaned them, and whipped up various adult beverages for when company came over.
It then occurred to me that the caipirinha is an unusually labor-intensive drink, what with the mixing, muddling, shaking, and so on. Generally, the RTDs or "Ready-to-Drink" caipirinha mixes available at retail are over-sugared, cloying, booze-deficient sludge--basically a liquified Journey ballad. Companies send samples to me, expecting me to faithfully welcome such products with open arms. I've instead decided that the whole RTD category and I had to go our separate ways.
Anyway... When my son's appetite went from cute to ravenous, he graduated from two-ounce travel bottles of baby formula to six-ounce bottles. The upside for daddy was that the bottles went from plastic to glass.
Oh, hell yes. It's on.
Remembering many a party lost to interminable muddling, I saved every six-ounce bottle of baby formula I could. After a soaking (to remove the label), dishwashing (to remove every trace of the bottles' previous contents), and Goo-Gone-ing (to remove remaining adhesive), and I was left with a little over a dozen bottles.
Now, I had to come up with a recipe. After some (unusually enjoyable, dimly remembered) trial-and-error, this is where I ended up:
Caipirinha purists may turn up their noses at my choice of agave nectar versus granulated sugar or simple syrup. All I can tell you is that you have to try it this way. I started using agave nectar after my daughter started asking for homemade lemonade. She wanted to help make it and the agave was easier for her to handle than sugar. I've used it in my caipirinhas ever since.
You can expect some settling of the nectar and the particles from the lime juice over time. A quick shake before serving fixes this quickly.
This recipe has so far gotten the thumbs up from three Brazilians, including my wife's mom and aunt.
I really do love my aged cachaça.
One of the great pleasures of exploring cachaça comes from experiencing the vast number of woods that a distiller might use to make his or her brand more unique. To date, I've tried cachaças aged in grappia, umburana, amendoim, ipê, balsamo, and (my longtime favorite) jequitibá rosa. This, of course, is in addition to the common carvalho ("oak"). Some distillers even work with combinations of woods in order to bring out interesting flavors, like Magnífica (marketed in the U.S. as Copa).
As with most any other spirit, such aged cachaças often command a premium over their unaged or otherwise lightly rested counterparts. So, you might imagine, there is a high incentive to produce counterfeits.
SecuringIndustry.Com has an interesting piece on how researchers from the State University of Campinas and Federal University of Minas Gerais are looking to combat this problem:
The team collected white cachaça from a local distillery and intentionally added a range of low-cost dyes and essences - as well as sawdust - to create a range of counterfeit samples. Using ESI-MS techniques they were able to develop 'fingerprints' of ions found in each of the counterfeit samples as well as legitimate oak cask-aged samples.
The technique was able to identify the type of wood used in the ageing process as well as detect illegal artificial ageing, according to the researchers.
You read that right: Cachaça counterfeiters are even using sawdust.
The researchers cited a 2001 study that pegged the amount of counterfeit booze in Brazil as high as 50%.
Doing the Lord's work, I tell you.
Perhaps I've been unfair. I've often said that cachaça marketers, in the years leading up to the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil, should probably find another job if they couldn't make a category of our favorite spirit in the U.S.
Truth is, cachaça is sadly a declining category in its native country. The good news is that increasingly liberalized trade is giving Brazilians a choice in their adult beverages. The bad news, by way of the Eurasia Review, is:
Over the last five years (2008-2012) consumption of cachaça in Brazil has fallen by 12.5m cases, while brandy has declined by nearly 1.3m. Vodka has grown by 3m cases in the same period, reaching a total of 8.5m cases in 2012. Whisk(e)y has also grown strongly, adding 1.5m cases to the market since 2008.
Brandy (referred to locally as conhaque) is failing to attract new consumers and a narrowing price gap between conhaque and imported spirits is making trading up easier. Whisk(e)y, in particular Scotch whisky, remains the ultimate status signal for Brazil’s aspirational middle class.
CNBC helps drive the point home:
In Brazil, where cachaça is largely consumed in the Caipirinha—the national drink—its perception as a lower-class beverage underlies the spirit's volume decline. "Caipirinha literally translates to 'little hillbilly,' the reason being it was so bad you had to add limes and sugar," said Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Bernstein. "A middle-class Brazilian will never ask for a Caipirinha, but a Caipiroska [a Caipirinha made with vodka]." Stirling said that 96 to 98 percent of the cachaça sold in Brazil is lower-grade varieties, and that this segment is likely to continue to suffer. By contrast, Brazil has emerged as a key market for global vodka brands like Diageo's Smirnoff and Pernod's Absolut.
Would be a shame if cachaça briefly achieved critical mass in the states, only to have Brazilians say, "Bah, we don't even drink that. Got any Grey Goose?"
So my sogra (mother-in-law) was surprised I hadn't seen this ad yet:
Just to make it abundantly clear what an acquisition by a big player can do for your ad budget, here is an Ypioca ad that ran in Greece, pre-acquisition by Diageo:
John Travolta versus man in ape suit. You decide.
Don't bother with the Google Translate; "brazilizar" is not really a word. That said, if you're moved to check, you'll get a lot of links to stories about this ad.