Cachaçagora - Cachaça, Caipirinha, And Cocktails

B Honey: Brazilian Fantasy #23,402

2012-04-14T11:22:50-05:00

Cachaça? Check.

Honey to satisfy greater-than-average sweet tooth? Gotcha.

Formula 1 tie-in? Okay, now you're not even playing fair.

Nifty VIP packaging? Oh, c'mon...

From TheDieLine.Com, a package-design blog:

B honey cachaça is a new Brazilian spirit that blends sugarcane rum with honey and a touch of lime, creating a premium beverage from a common drink. "B” is a new liquor brand co-founded by Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. and friends. “B” is made with sugar cane from the region of Brazil and refined to create a perfect blend of sweet and citrus, adding honey, lemon and generous doses of sophistication, from the recipe to the packaging.

You have my attention...

Cachaça... Recognized!

2012-04-11T21:00:29-05:00

Things have been quiet around here with work, gradschool, and daddydom, so you know this has to be big.

The old, weary, unelected giants of concrete and steel have seen it fit to "recognize" cachaça as distinctively Brazilian, presumably in exchange for reciprocal recognition of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey (no, not the same thing) as distinctively American.

The rest of us... like... you know... work for a living.

Hat-tip to Copa's Jason Montgomery, who was first to me with the news.

Hopefully, this will mean an end to ridiculous labeling laws that gave us the idiotic and obligatory "Brazilian Rum" label. Just in time, too, with the Brazil-hosted World Cup and Olympics just around the corner. Hopefully, the Federal Register shaved a page or two off of its 80,000+ pages this week.

Leblon (leaders of the "Legalize Cachaça" campaign) is understandably throwing some happy hours. In case you're not on their list, here they are:

New York: Lani Kai – Friday April 13, 6-8pm
Miami: Novecento - Thursday April 12, 6-8pm
Chicago: Union Sushi - Thursday April 12, 6-8pm
Philadelphia: Alma de Cuba – Friday April 13, 7-9pm
Rio de Janeiro: Fasano – Friday April 13, 6-9pm
São Paulo: Mocotó – Friday April 13, 6-9pm | Mani – Friday April 13, 6-9pm

Okay, cachaça marketers... You now officially have no excuse! Cachaça is "legalized." All eyes are going to be on Brazil for the next four years at least. At least a few of you have been acquired by, or otherwise received money from, some of the booze industry's deepest pockets. Interest in Brazilian culture will never be higher in the foreseeable future. If you cannot make it happen in the next four years... GIVE. IT. UP. The ball is in a dead hover over home plate.

Yes, I know "cachaça" and "caipirinha" are tough for the gringos to pronounce. But they figured out "mo-HEE-toe" for Pete'sPedro's sake! Interest in creative cockails is up across the board. Hell... There's was even a cute animated movie set in (and took its name from) Rio... with an Angry Birds tie-in to boot! Hell... Even survival-horror dead-enders forgot about Turistas ages ago.

Now's your moment, guys. Boa sorte!

Cachaça Petisco da Vila: Treasure in the Mall

2011-11-02T07:57:58-05:00

Sometime last June, while visiting Rio after a business trip in São Paulo, my mother-in-law took me to a very special place.

She took me to the mall.

Now, new readers might understandably judge me on this basis and consider such a trip somewhere between a gross affront to all world travelers ("You crossed the equator to go to... the mall?") and an incredibly unmanly capitulation ("You crossed the equator so that... your mother-in-law could take you to the mall?"). Long-time readers know better: 1) My mother-in-law is cooler than any of us and 2) me going out of my way to go to a shopping mall is a truly Nixon-goes-to-China moment.

Now, within this mall is something you will be hard-pressed to find in the U.S.—something that the various needling do-gooders and joyless regulators would never allow to widely proliferate in the country that at one time held freedom as its highest-order ideal.

Heard of a brewpub? Well, I present to you Petisco da Vila: a distillery pub in the Nova América mall (among other locations).

More details, along with video and a slideshow, after the jump.

That's right... Within the Nova América mall, about 20 yards from such standard mall fare as a McDonald's and Subway Sandwiches, lies a restaurant with great food, a world-class collection of artesenal cachaças and, yes, its very own (damn good) cachaça produced on-premises.

Of course, running a cachaça distillery in a mall is not without its difficulties and challenges. For one thing, there's no place to grow the cane. In Petisco da Vila's case, it has to be trucked in and stored before crushing. Sometimes, try as one might, it can't always be from the same source. Fair sacrifice.

For another, note the fume hood over the still in the photo below. It turned out that the employees working in the store above the still were wondering why their days were... going... by... just... a... little... bit... slower. The fume hood is an attempt to remedy this though I'm sure that, during my own time working in retail, I might've quite welcomed such a secondhand experience.

Third, even the most expansive and well-planned malls are often starved for space. Cane-crushing, fermenting, aging, labeling and inventory storage take place in a series of tiny rooms along an easy-to-miss hallway between two stores. (See below.)

A good chunk of inventory (and there's plenty, as you'll see in the video) ends up in this tiny Harry-Potter's-bedroom closet here.

The distillery master, who goes by the nickname Zara (below) is impressive just as much for the quality of his product as a near-encyclopedic knowledge of hard-rock guitar players that even rivals my own. He sent me home with a generous amount of samples.

The video and slideshow has the rest.

Slideshow

Video

Scoop: Leblon to Debut Açai-infused Liqueur

2011-10-11T11:00:00-05:00

Yesterday, I met Ben Weinbroer of Leblon and got something I wasn't quite expecting: a scoop.

Meet Cedilla, or at least the tiny sample of it that I still have:

According to the marketing brochure, Cedilla features "hand-picked...açai berries from the Amazon region of Brazil, macerated and blended with the highest quality alambique cachaça." It'll be bottled at 25% ABV.

It has the characteristics of a very light ruby port, equally comfortable neat as an after-dinner drink or, according to one of their recipes, as a substitute for simple syrup to make a perhaps rather stiff "açai caipirinha." (A combination I'm eager to try.) Another recommended preparation is the Rio Royale: one part Cedilla to four parts sparkling wine or prosecco.

Cachaça-based liqueurs are a bit of an under-explored territory, in my opinion. I'm a big fan of the Gabriela, which is a somewhat heavier aperitif that features a blend of cachaça, clove and cinnamon. Maxi Cana, introduced to readers a few months ago, makes an excellent one.

For those who don't know, "cedilla" is the proper term for this character (ç), which is common to both the words "cachaça" and "açai", giving both their "s" sound. Based on a Google search, Leblon has gone to some significant lengths to trademark this word.

Now, ahem... There's just the small, teeny, tiny matter of the logo itself. Here's mine, familiar to those who follow me on Facebook and Twitter:

And Cedilla's:

Coincidence? Probably. Let's just say that I kind of feel like how Spinal Tap must have felt when Metallica came out with a "none more black" album of their own in 1991.

In any event, Leblon has a few more things up its sleeve for 2012. In the meantime, look for Cedilla around the first quarter or so.

Scoop: Cachaça Werneck Gets Export License, New Products Coming

2011-09-04T10:42:42-05:00

I received some very good news the other day: Cachaça Werneck, by far one of the best finds I've had over the past year, just received Brazilian regulatory approval for export.

I had the fortune of visiting the distillery and meeting its eponymous proprietor, Eli Werneck. The photo slideshow is below. Read my interview with Eli about his export news after the jump.

Congratulations on getting the export license. What was the process? How long did it take?

Thanks. Within the Ministry of Agriculture, it was very easy and fast. Our first registry in 2009 had already included "export" as an activity. So it was only a matter of formalizing it. But within the Ministry of Finance, it took a little longer. We had to hire the services of a specialist and he needed to go there about 10 times. Many copies of documents were required and we had to go through some bureaucracy. This whole process took about two months.

How long until we can expect your cachaça in the US?

Soon! In the beginning in small volumes and few places. But we expect to grow our sales to US and other countries gradually. A small number of boxes (1 dozen bottles each) were air-freighted this week to Miami by a trading company that will present our cachaças at the Miami International Wine Fair at the end of September. We have also been contacted by people interested in importing our cachaças into Florida and Connecticut. This is just the beginning. We intend to be everywhere there is a demand for high quality cachaça. We have already sent some samples to different countries in Europe, as well as Mexico, Argentina and China.

You have an interesting and unusual story, having been the CEO of Volvo Penta Brasil. How and when did Werneck Cachaça start?

Although I drink moderately, my interest in cachaça exists since my youth. In the early 80s, for two years, I produced very low quantities of cachaça using sugar cane from my backyard. Some friends loved it. That cachaça was produced in the very old style, cutting “head”, “heart” and “tail” by tasting and smelling. I only stopped that hobby because I moved from that house and had no more sugarcane. To compensate, I started a cachaça collection.

In 2006, I bought a piece of land and decided to plant sugar cane and produce cachaça. I hired an agronomic engineer specialized in sugar cane. He proceeded all the soil analysis, chose the area to plant, specified the soil treatment and selected the appropriated type of sugarcane for the soil and climate. We were very successful with the plantation. This agronomist is now Ph.D. and his thesis was “sugarcane.” He is still working for Werneck and we became close friends. Simultaneously, my wife and I started to do several research projects and enroll in courses in order to become good cachaça professionals. I designed the premises with assistance from one of our teachers. You know the results.

The culture of quality and technical accuracy I adquired along my more than 30-year career within Volvo Penta played a very important role in this project. Concepts like: “Plan in all the details before starting” and “Do it right from the beginning” are always on my mind.

Your Ouro, Prata and Tradicional products are excellent, with the last two faring quite well in the tasting Cachacagora did with Brazil-In-Chicago. Any other varieties you are contemplating?

We will launch an orange liqueur very soon. It has been greatly enjoyed by everyone who tasted it. The Prata will be presented 2012 in a new bottle next year. This will differentiate it a little more from the Tradicional, but there will be no change in its taste. And in 2014 we will launch a limited edition of an extra-premium cachaça aged three years in oak.

We have some other ideas related to harmonization and other gastronomic applications, but it is too early to disclose.

Thoughts on the Sagatiba Sale

2011-08-06T17:18:22-05:00

This week, in the midst of an earnings announcement that proved that people will find money for a drink in a crappy economy, drinks giant Gruppo Campari announced that it is buying Sagatiba for $26 million. Campari was Sagatiba's distributor in Latin America.

As I've been telling cachaça marketers for some time now: If you can't figure out how to make cachaça a world-class category by 2014 (Brazil's hosting of the World Cup) or 2016 (the Olympics), then please, for the love of God, find another career. Global spirits companies like Campari have the resources to see what the possible opportunities are, especially as all eyes will be fixed upon Brazil over the balance of this decade. I hope this means that they'll put some strong marketing muscle behind the category.

As readers know, I find Sagatiba Pura good-not-great though I think that Velha shows great promise. Preçiosa? Never tried it, though the prices it has fetched at auction have been the source of some entertainment.

One thing is for sure: I spend a good part of my day job talking about the importance of having the right brand ambassador in an increasingly networked world, and Sagatiba's John Gakuru is without a doubt the hardest working one I know.

Now... Is there going to be a Sagatiba Calendar? :)

Don't worry, ladies. The good folks at Campari have Benico del Toro for you.

Top photo credit: Wellington Silva

Chicagoist on Cachaça Around the Windy City

2011-07-04T14:55:55-05:00

Chicagoist has a great, timely feature on cachaça, highlighting bartender Peter Gugni of The Bedford.

Gugni came to the Bedford from the Cantina, a San Francisco bar specializing in Latin American libations. "They had close to two dozen different cachaças," Gugni says. Tasting through the Cantina's collection gave him an appreciation for cachaça's subtleties. "You're trying each one side-by-side. That's when you can explore the possibilities of cachaça."

Novo Fogo and Leblon each get a mention. Chicagoist also gives up the recipe for Gugni's first Novo Fogo cocktail "Edison's Medicine" (with apologies to Tesla, I'm sure).

Edison's Medicine, a popular Bedford cocktail featuring Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça,Yellow Chartreuse, fresh basil, agave syrup and lime (recipe below). "It's very round and full," Gugni says of the Novo Fogo Silver. Its slightly unctuous texture can lend drinks a luscious feel. "It's a very simple cocktail, but all those flavors really come together and complete each other." The bright green, basil-tinged color of the drink looked medicinal to Gugni, hence the rhyming name.

Here's the drink. For my stateside readers (which is most of you) enjoy your Fourth:

Edison's Medicine

1 1/2 ounces Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça
1/2 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
1 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce agave syrup
3 sprigs fresh basil

Gently muddle basil in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add remaining ingredient and ice. Shake hard and double-strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with orange zest.

How Sweet It Is... At Maxi Cana

2011-06-26T13:03:38-05:00

Cachaçagora is, as you've no doubt noticed by now, not my day-job. As the sidebar on the left-hand side of my site says, I'm an SVP at Edelman, the world's largest independently owned PR firm.

As part of this job, I help out with ABERJE's professional communications certificate program in São Paulo every year, speaking to the communications folks from some of Brazil's finest companies about the intersection between corporate affairs and social media. (ABERJE is a Brazilian professional organization for people in my line of work.) After doing this for three out of the last four years, I was finally able to puddle-jump to Rio and visit with my sogros (in-laws) for a couple of days before heading back to Chicago.

This, of course, meant cachaça... Lots and lots of cachaça.

First thing the morning after I landed in Rio, I boarded a bus with the Confraria de Cachaça Copo Furado, the cachaça-appreciation society in which my in-laws are very active.

Yes, I have the coolest in-laws in the world. Stew in your jealousy for a bit, and then read about where we went after the jump.

About 45 minutes outside of downtown Rio, there's a distillery like no other: Maxi Cana. Why is it so unique? Well, good cachaça is all about how you handle sugar, and proprietor Augusto knows more about what to do with that sugar than anyone.

The first thing you notice on Maxi Cana's product wall is the vast array of fine cachaça-based liqueurs: banana, passion fruit, cinnamon and (a personal after-dinner favorite) "Gabriela" that combines clove and cinnamon into a very nice aperitif.

As generous as Augusto was with the tour (slideshow at bottom), there was one building where no one was allowed access: the place where the liqueurs get made. (The picture below is as far as we got.)Strictly top-secret stuff.

In addition to his cachaças and liqueurs, Maxi Cana also provides bottled sweetening products. One was a simple syrup that uses glucose and fructose instead of sucrose, which is essentially common table sugar.

By way of a demonstration, he asked one of the Confraria members (a hotel bartender, no less) to make three caipirinhas: one in the traditional fashion, another with squeezed lime juice a la Tony Abou-Ganim and another using squeezed lime juice and the glucose/fructose syrup. The third was the clear winner in the taste test: crisp, refreshing taste with a color that would have been more at home in a martini glass than the rocks glasses we were using.

Obviously, I got a bottle of this glucose/fructose stuff. Also picked up a bottle of semi-evaporated cane juice just for the hell of it.

A cynic, of course, may scoff that all of this attention to sugar and sweetened cachaça products must mean that the cachaça itself is somehow inferior. Far from it. I made sure that, as part of my haul, I came back with a bottle of Maxi Cana's sublime four-year, oak-aged cachaça. I sampled generous amounts of this fine product, as well as a six-year-aged one.

Slideshow of entire trip below.

Wrap-up: Brazil-In-Chicago Cachaça Tasting

2011-04-24T23:04:06-05:00

Photo Credit: Leticia Gomes

It was a night to remember, at least for those of us who didn't sample that much cachaça. Those of us who might've given up alcohol for lent would have taken solace in the fact that, well, at least it was already Sunday in Jerusalem by the time we got started.

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of working with Marcelo Jarmendia of Brazil in Chicago to put together a tasting of some of the best cachaças around. Locally available and otherwise, the products tasted by the intimate, capacity gathering provided a well-rounded survey of the state of artesanal cachaças today.

The evening started with a discussion of the Confraria de Cachaça do Copo Furado (Rio's cachaça appreciation society) by my mother-in-law, Cláudia Fernandes, who once served as its president. My father-in-law, José Alberto Kede, then went into detail about the history and production of cachaça.

After my schpiel about my experience with cachaça and building this site (even sharing the Maria Izabel feature), we went straight to the tasting. Details after the jump.

First, a quick outline of the tasting:

Brand	Type	Rested In	Duration (Months)	U.S. Avail?
Werneck	Tradicional	Steel	6	No
Novo Fogo	Silver	Steel	12	Yes
Copa	n/a	Ipê / Oak	6-to-12 / 24	Yes
Cabana	n/a	Jequitibá	6 to 9	Yes
Werneck	Prata	Jequitibá	6 mos	No
Monte Alvão	Ouro	Grappia	12 mos	No
Monte Alvão	Ouro	Amburana	12 mos	No

Some general notes:

Of the above, I've visited two of the distilleries. A feature on my tour of Werneck is hopefully coming soon. (I'm still recovering from a data crash.) You can see where Copa comes from by checking out the post about Magnifica and watching the video, which I shared at the tasting.
As a tasting of high-quality, artesanal cachaças there were most certainly no clunkers. That said, among this elite set, Monte Alvão distinguished itself for its unique, complex flavors. (It's also a personal favorite. I won't lie. Ichor flows from Monte Alvão's stills, I swear. Unicorns happily crush the cane under the watchful doting eyes of fairy princesses.)
I was a little suprised at the initial prejudice some people had against the steel-rested cachaças going into the tasting. That said, Werneck Tradicional and Novo Fogo Silver won over some believers, especially the latter.
At least two participants asked twice about Copa, I'm guessing because it's probably the closest out of the seven to more familiar spirits and the clove and honey aromas really seem to resonate with folks.
Cabana and Werneck Prata showed the group that you can't rely on the color of the cachaça to determine its general quality or whether it has been aged—a fallacy I run into way too often, sometimes even in the professional press. Jequitibá, a native wood, imparts very little in the way of color and flavor characteristics. In fact, jequitibá-aging is a characteristic of some of the best cachaças I've tried.

I want to personally thank Matti Anttila of Cabana (FB, Tw), Jason Mongomery and Bryan Pyka of Copa (FB), and Dragos Axinte of Novo Fogo (FB, Tw) for graciously providing their respective products for this event and, thus, helping to support Brazil In Chicago's mission.

Cachaça Featured at MyNewOrleans

2011-04-22T21:45:05-05:00

There's a fun exploration of cachaça from someone apparently new to quality product over at MyNewOrleans.Com:

The 12 cachaças of various labels and quality levels that I tasted were within a broad range of flavors and aromas. At the lower end, they were like cheap vodka: hot, very little flavor and pretty difficult to appreciate. I noted that these would be fine in mixed drinks as the addition of fruit juice, sugar or citrus would mask the savage qualities.

But in the better products, both younger and older in age, the cachaça took on a more interesting, complicated, layered quality. Notice I did not say “subtle.” Cachaças are not shy, and these higher-priced products were quite forward. Yet, they were darned interesting and really delightful. The discovery process was a fine journey.