Latest / Into The Barchive / Cachaça — Brazil’s Spirit, the Caipirinha, and the Batida
Transcript
- ITB: Into the bark hive where the past comes alive. Forgotten drinks we'll revive. Welcome back, Barkivist, and welcome to Into the Barkhive. The podcast where we dive deep into the stories, people, and cocktails that shape the way we drink. I'm Tim Wright, mixologist, above average curious drinker, and your slightly tipsy bar tour guide. And I'm Dr. Blake Jones, historian and certified specialist of spirits, here to pour out the stories behind what's in your glass. Today we are traveling south. Way south. To a country known for samba? Yeah, for carnival, for football, and incredible food. And then probably one of the most distinctive spirit traditions in the world. Today we're talking about Brazil. Yeah, and when we talk about Brazilian drinks, we're really talking about one ingredient above all others, caçacha. Yes, sir. A spirit born from sugar cane shipped by centuries of history and deeply tied to Brazilian identity. Okay, today we're going to explore two traditional cocktails and show how versatile that spirit can be. Yeah. So first we're going to make Brazil's national cocktail, the caiparinha. And then we're going to dive into the bachida, a family of creamy, fruity, and sometimes dessert-like cocktails that showcase another side of Brazilian drinking culture. So grab your favorite glass, slice some citrus, and maybe put on a little music from Rio. Because today we're heading into the world of Brazilian cocktails as we go into the barka. The Kuiperinia is our first cocktail. What we're going to do is building glass. We're going to take one lime, cut it up into quarters. Then immediately drop them into our glass. Next, we're gonna take this super fine gray ⁓ sugar and do two teaspoons into the glass. If you want it sweeter, add more. If you want it less sweet, take it back. Our next ingredient, two ounces of kasasha. Aromatically. And next, we're going to muddle. The reason we're muddling right now is because we technically have citrus in there, just not any use of it until we start to express some of those juices and oils from that lime. And this is going to help start to dissolve that super fine sugar. Your muddler, ⁓ it can be anything if you've got any vessel at the in your kitchen, but we technically do have a couple of muddles around here that every so often get some work out. And what we're trying to do again, we're not trying to pulverize per se. We're just trying to make sure that we squeeze the lime enough to get some of those juices out and to get some of those oils working. And you'll start to see that the color of ⁓ the juice has ⁓ started to change. So we no longer have that clear looking spirit. Now we got that cloudy looking. And that's the difference between some of that sugar melting or sugar dissolving and those oils working and getting some of that glycerin going. Couple more presses, and I think we are good to go. Next, we're gonna add ice to this glass and stir to chill. I won't fill it up way, way too much right now. Give myself a little bit of room to play with. Slide that out of the way so I don't hit it. And just like if you had a stirring glass. Give it time. Thirty seconds should do. As you're going here, every so often, just give it an extra little lift to bring some of those ⁓ lime wedges up, making sure that they're just incorporated throughout the drink. A workaround for this cocktail is if you did not want to go granulated sugar, you could actually use a simple syrup or dimerare ⁓ syrup since it's already there and dissolved for you. ⁓ because this cocktail will evolve over time if you have any of those ⁓ sugar crystals still left over in the cocktail. I am almost finished with this. As you notice, we have a little bit more room. And if you learned anything from our previous episode, ice is your friend. So we're going to top it off and finish it up with a little bit more ice. And that, my friends, is our hyperinha. For our second drink, we're going to make the bachida. Whereas the Caiparini is like bright and refreshing, a little tart. The bachida is a little creamier, fruitier. And so we're going to take in a blender cup, two ounces of our unaged Kassasha, and add there. You could make this drink and do like sh whip shake over pebble ice, but Frozen's another way to go. From there, we're going to add an ounce of passion fruit syrup. So typically that's equal parts sugar and ⁓ passion fruit puree. I just find buying a commercial syrup like liquid alchemist probably to be the easier route. Gonna take a half ounce of lime juice. And then finally, we're going to add a half ounce of coconut milk. So this can be like the canned coconut milk you get. Just make sure it's incorporated. So some of that coconut cream is in it as well. Where it's not just all the watery liquid. So from there, we'll I went ahead and chose my glass. I filled my chosen serving vessel with pebble ice. I'm gonna add that to my blender tin, put on the base, and then from there I will add it to the motor and then blend it until it's combined. So that's about 15 seconds. From there, I will take off the blade. And then simply pour it into Our chosen glass. And because we added the right amount of pebble ice to the serving vessel, we have a nice perfect wash line. You can just drink this on its own. You could add some grated nutmeg, but it can just be served simply like this. Enjoy the bachida. Now that we've built the cocktails, let's build the context. The story of Kassasha. We have to start with Kassasha. Like it was the main ingredient in both of our cocktails. Hell, mine only had three ingredients in it total. And and I mean, unless you're including the ice, it's it's doing all the heavy lifting. So what is Kassasha? Well, unlike a lot of spirits where the cocktail came first and the identity came later. Cassasha is really inseparable from Brazilian history. Okay. It it's a sugar cane spirit. Okay. And oftentimes it's kind of labeled Brazilian rum. Yes. Right? When people ask me what's Cassia, for lack of better terms, I just say it's Brazilian rum. Yeah. I mean both are made from sugar cane, but the production methods and the cultural histories are very different. Okay. So rum Traditionally developed from molasses, which is the byproduct of sugar production. Correct. Kassasha is typically made from su fresh sugar cane juice. Okay. And that fresh sugar cane juice gives Kassasha its really unique character. I agree. And you know, depending on the producer, Kassasha can be grassy, vegetable, vegetable, yeah, fruity or funky. Maybe floral or even maybe even lightly smoky. Okay. But it's a spirit with a huge range. Okay. So it's got this range, probably more like tequila, right? It's re definitely tawar or something, may play the in the way that you go to distill it, f open fermentation, stuff like that's gonna play a lot into this, sounds like. Yeah. And the history of Kassasha really goes all the way back. The Portuguese colonization of Brazil in the 1500s. Okay. Sugar b sugar cane became one of the major crops of colonial Brazil. And where there is sugar cane, traditionally fermentation and distillation follow. Which always means that people are going to make spirits with something almost immediately. Exactly. And Cassaca has a complicated history. Because it's tied to colonialism, the sugar economy, which also means ⁓ the history of enslaved Africans in Brazil. Okay. So the sugar plantations that fueled Brazil's economy relied heavily on enslaved labor. So the development of Cassasha is part of that story. Both the technological history of distillation and the human history. So as we dive into these, most of the times we talk about like there's there's something more important to talk about than just the cocktail behind this. This isn't just a drink. It's not a simple recipe. It's gonna be more into probably economics, more into my the migration patterns, like probably even the trade. It's like forced migration. Yeah. And ultimately it's gonna be a cultural, like Have cultural importance as well. Absolutely. And over time, Cassacha becomes something distinctly Brazilian. It's not just a cheap local spirit, it becomes part of their national identity. Like today, there are thousands of Cassacha producers, from small artisanal distilleries to large industrial operations. And even like semi-legal moonshine style operations. I can definitely say I may have had a bottle or two from a f a mutual friend of ours. As sh ⁓ she came back from Brazil as a little thank you. So yeah, very artisanal, we could say. Abs small batch. Small batch. The smallest. The smallest of batches. And so Brazil produces over a billion liters of casacha each year. Wow. But most of it is consumed in Brazil. Okay. It's kind of like Baiju in China. It's one of the biggest spirit categories in the world, but it's almost entirely consumed within its domestic market. It is a domestic spirit ⁓ spirit that ever so ⁓ you know, ever so slightly branches out when they want it to. Yes. Very selective of what gets to out ⁓ gets beyond their walls. Okay. So unlike some of the spirits that we've j enjoyed, like for specific cocktails, we've talked about like this one is Kassasha is it in itself also able to be enjoyed neat. Yeah. Especially the aged expressions of Kassasha. Like you could drink an unaged Kassasha like someone would sit mezcal. Yeah. ⁓ or clarin or something like that. But Age Cassasha, oftentimes Brazil has some unique hardwood trees. Okay. Particularly the Amburana. Yeah, Ambirana ⁓ cask finish, right? Like Yeah. So like an American whiskey we've seen in the past several years, like bourbon finish and embarana cask or things like that. ⁓ like for instance, this Penelope ⁓ bourbon whiskey, they finish it in honey and embarana barrels. And Ambirana and bourbon and the flavor it gives to spirits is almost like a red hot cinnamon sort of flavor. They're those baking spices flavor that it imparts. Yeah. So unlike other spirits where a lot of times the way they age them is they buy like ex-bourbon barrels and like some Kassasha producers still do that. They're also utilizing some of their unique wood. Yeah. Their national unique wood where they're not having to go out and procure it from somewhere else. Yes. And so that gives some entirely new flavor profiles. Okay, so in Brazil, cocktails using Cassia are kind of a recent phenomenon. Yeah, for a long time many Brazilians just drank caçasha plain, like neater on ice, and that was it. And They're like, ⁓ we don't want cassasha mixed into punch or other cocktails. But the rise of the bachida as like a national category of drinks began to change the subjection. Okay, so let's talk about the bachida. Not spelled that way, pronounced that way, correct? Yes. So in the Brazilian Portuguese, what we would n what to as English speakers The word batida, B A T I D A, they say batida, which means shaken or beaten in Portuguese. Like you pulverize the blending it. Okay, yeah. And so the bachida really refers to a whole family of Brazilian cocktails that emerged in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds. So think about like it as a category like sours, daisies. It's almost like an an a Brazilian cocktail family. It is their template. Yes. Okay. So they will build bachetas around casasha, some sort of fruit and something sweet. You can find ⁓ bachitas made with coconut, passion fruit, pineapple, condensed milk. I I was i I was interested ⁓ I think it was interesting when you use the ⁓ coconut milk or coconut cream in yours, because I remember The first one that I had seen was actually made with condensed milk instead. Maybe because it's was ready more readily available at that establishment. Yeah. And so that's why they used what they used. But yeah, I thought that was an interesting take. And I mean, if you look at this, the texture is almost like a tropical dessert cocktail. ⁓ yeah. Kind of like that pina colada looking. Yeah. But the Kassasha really keeps it grounded. And that's the thing I really like about Kassasha. It can play both roles. It can be crisp and refreshing like in the kaiparina or richer and more decadent like in this bacheta. So the most popular ones are this bacheta? Yeah. And what's funny is the most so, you know, bacheta's a family. Okay. One type of bacheta is called the bachida polista. And what is this? It's better known to us as the caiparina. ⁓ this guy. So even though we started with the caiparinha and then made the bachida, in discussing it, it made sense to start with the bachida and move to the caiparinha, because all caiparinas are bachidas, but not all vachitas are caiparinhas. But then let's talk about the caiparinha. Where that name come from? The name comes from the Portuguese word caipira. And again, you know, sweet Portuguese, so I apologize. And that traditionally refers to someone from the countryside or the rural areas of Brazil. ⁓ so mm we would say in the South from the Hollers. They're they're they're all they're all in the hollers, you know, from from the countryside, rural. Yeah, I mean and used in a more derogatory sense, this might could be a way to say someone is a hillbilly or a redneck. Okay, gotcha. Which then goes back to us talking about the fermentation or d distillation piece of really small bass. Now it's it's now it's connecting, making sense. And so the drink's name has roots in Brazil's rural identity and the technique is really important. It's not just we're not juicing the lime and shaking it like a daiquiry. Nope. You're you're muddling the hell out of it. You're pulverizing it. Beating, I think, was the word was part of the the definition or translation, right? Yeah, and you're building it in glass. I mean, that's what you did. Yeah. It is a simple technique you can do at home, ⁓ at a roadside shack, you know. Yeah, just because you don't have the muddler, you could just as easily use a wooden stirring vessel from you know that you're using from your potness and pans, right? Just a wooden spoon. Yeah. And This is another great example where ingredients matter. When you only have four things going into your cocktail, those four things better be high quality because you can't hide it. You can't hide a bad ingredient in there. Yeah. Good, you know, you you may or may not want your small batch kasasha, depending on how well it's made, but quality sugar, a nice fresh lime, some refreshing drinks, but it's got a lot of depth. Yeah, you get the grassy note. So again, with the the typically unaged version, that high grass almost leading itself into an aggregal kind of flavor because it is that fresh juice. It's pressed for intent and not necessarily the molasses of a like a a secondary bar brought by product, right? Yes. Like it's intentional. And so you're getting those first impressions of what that it's supposed to be, that fresh juice. Pops and comes through easy. I would say there's some other bright other than the brightness, it does bring and lend itself to some natural sweetness too. That isn't the round, I would say the rounder caramel flavors that you would get from a molasses, even if the molasses was distilled up to be a clearer spirit later on. It's just naturally bright and sweet. It's fantastic in that original form. Yeah, and what's interesting, because of this drink's kind of humble origins and its techniques and things like that, the drink has evolved. Sometimes fashionable Brazilians living in the big cities found like, ⁓ Cassas, like the hillbilly drink or whatever. They wanted to be more modern. They thought Cassasha was too rustic. And so instead they would make kyprassokas. W vodka. Yeah. So it's the exact same drink, but instead of Kassasha, you replace it with vodka. And that the kairosoka first appears in the early 1980s. Others, instead of Kassasha, used white rum and made a Kuiperissima. Okay. Or maybe they took the lime out and put in other fruits, passion fruit, pineapple, strawberries, and so forth. And then at that point, is it a caiperinha anymore, or is it just a bacheta? It's now a bachida. Right? Because in many ways, a kaiparinha is a lime bachida. Yes. A very specific lime bacheta. my first time of making a caiparina was actually now, I guess, was making a bachida because I put strawberries in it. Just we were with a group of friends out and about, had a Full bottle of casasha to go to go to town with. Most of those individuals wanted a sweeter version of it. And instead of adding more sugar, I was adding natural sugars from pressing or muddling down fresh strawberries. Now that does make a different texture of a cocktail. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ that fleshy and seediness of the strawberries. So ⁓ there may have been some some double straining or shaking to help. make it at palatable for some of those individuals, but my first attempt at a caiperina is now a bacheta. Well that's interesting. Yeah. And and it's one of those things with the cocktail renaissance here in the United States and around the world, bartenders are exploring Kassasha as an a core ingredient new cocktails. So instead of again it's kinda like with tequila, where instead of Tequila always just being used to make margarias and palomas. Casasha is now being used in new inventive cocktails beyond the caiparinha and the bachida. So let's talk about before we talk about modernization, let's say of those cocktails, let's talk about the Brazilian drinking culture though. Like let's stay there and what's what would be interesting facts about a Brazilian drinking culture? Well, again Brazilian drinking culture, oftentimes the drink themselves are simple. They emphasize freshness and sharing. Kind of you know, this social environment, you know, no complicated techniques or long ingredients lists. Yours had three ingredients, mine had four. Yep. Pretty simple. ⁓ take advantage of great local ingredients, what sort of fruit is around and in season. Maybe local herbs and spices and then your local spirit, the Kassasha. Yep. And turn ⁓ into something that fits the moment. And again, the Kuiperenia, if we use that as our case study, it's not a cocktail that's designed to be like pretentious or refined. It belongs in your hand while you're just h hanging out outside. Yeah, there's I'm finding the urge to hold this in my hand the entire like This episode because one condensation and it's it drips if you don't finish it. It's enticing to go ahead and finish it. But like it's meant to be there. It's meant to just have the dialogue back and forth. And once you're done with one, it's time for another, right? Absolutely. And I mean you're gonna find a Kuiperinha everywhere from beachside kiosks to neighborhood bars, and you're gonna find all those variations. You know, again. The classic as lime sugar and Kassasha, but others may swap in passion fruit, pineapple, mango, berries. I again w go ahead and we'll introduce so Robin. Yeah. She talks about where it's stands up up and down the road. Like there is a somebody that is serving kyperinhas up and down and it's just easy to grab. Sip. They're not making large, like crazy big, large Windsors, you know. Nice size to get you to one place to another, and then by the time you get to the other place, it's time to have another and just keep it going. It's a walking. Yeah, it's a walkie. I mean, even like and again, one of the interesting legacies of colonialism is last summer when you and I were in Portugal, you know, like some of the more European elements, it's like, ⁓ let's have our white porton tonics and things like that. But how many just dive bars and we won't buy their like cafarinha five euro. Yeah. Easy peasy. And grab it and go. Yeah, is that there that even though the caiparinha is a Brazilian drink, it's made its way back to the colonizer in Europe and Portugal. ⁓ tell me some other stuff about ⁓ important about the Brazilian drinking culture. So one of the most important parts is the boteco. Okay, what is a boteco? It is essentially like a casual neighborhood bar. I'm assuming, you know, with the similarities between like ⁓ Portuguese and Spanish and Italian, like a bodegas type bar. Okay. So, you know, oftentimes these are small family run. These aren't cocktail bars. No, they're people sitting out there on the the front porch, front patio, front whatever of the establishment. Usually there's one person but standing behind the bar that's either Cooking something, getting ready for a meal for a family meal, but also a cooler full of beers and a few ingredients to make a caiparina or some kind of fresh pressed cocktail. Yeah. And I mean the idea is you meet friends, watch football. Yep. Right. Always a game and there's always seems to be some kind of snack that comes with it. So ⁓ unlike mm, I would say most of the American where you go to the bar, you order food, you order a drink. Most of these other places, it's you order the drink. And it comes with some kind of snacky to go along with it because you're there. They know that you're there. Yeah, and the drink menu at a boteco is essentially cold beer, shots of casasha, or a caiparinha and small plates of food. You have fried snacks, grilled meat, made little seafood, whatever sort of regional specialties, things like that. But very small. Like it isn't the Like you're not getting a front and back menu. You're getting whatever's on that that chalkboard right there. That's it for the day. Beyond the caipirinha, ⁓ you have drinks like the bechiga, ⁓ which blend casacha with fruit, coconuts, ⁓ sweet ingredients that you talked about. They show how more tropical indulgent side of Brazil can be influential with the national spirit. But what a What else about the bachego? Like the the baceta is maybe a drink you might see more during holidays or parties. It's not just like your roadside drink necessarily. It's your everyday it's not your everyday drinker. It's about enjoyment. Yeah, I I can see a creamy beverage not being in the easiest thing to do roadside. Where this bad boy, again, put into the prop not always a glass, sometimes a plastic cup. It's what your your walkie's in. They're muddling right there on that little cart, and then you're gone. Yeah. And and really the biggest lesson from Brazilian drinking culture is the best drinks aren't always the ones with the most ingredients or the most complicated preparation. Sometimes the best drink is the one that fits the moment. Whether it's a cold caiperina on a hot afternoon or a bachida shared among friends on a holiday. So, in conclusion, Brazilian cocktails tell. ⁓ tell a story that's bigger than just ingredients. Much like a few of the co ⁓ classes or episodes that we've done here recently, right? They tell a story of sugarcane. You talked about colonial history. You talked about agriculture. You talked about migration and celebration and national identity. Right? Yeah. And I mean that's why we love exploring drinks like these. A cocktail is never just a cocktail. There's always a story hiding in there somewhere. Yeah, and sometimes it's a forgotten bartender. Yeah. Sometimes it's in a city. Sometimes it's in a bottle of spirits that carry centuries of history. And Cassasha is a great example of that. A spirit that started as a product of sugar the sugar cane economy, right? ⁓ became a symbol of Brazil itself, like a major symbol of Brazil. So the next time you see a bottle of Cassasha, just don't think Brazilian rum, right? It's although an easy descriptor, there's a rich history there with the sugar cane fields, the culture of the coastal towns of Botecos, and generations of people sharing drinks together. Thank you for listening to this episode of Into the Barkhive. Please like, subscribe, follow us on YouTube, ⁓ and go ahead and leave a couple of those comments. ⁓ some of those are cracking us up if you're following along. Go back and look at some of the cock ⁓ comment history. ⁓ we've got some good stuff out there. ⁓ like and subscribe ⁓ and follow get us on ⁓ your podcast, Apple or Spotify. What do we have next time? So next time we're moving from the tropical flavors of Brazil to one of the great American cocktail templates. Yes sir, we're talking about the whiskey sour. Yep, and we'll explore the history of this classic combination of whiskey, citrus, and sugar, and we'll make two versions. The Timeless Classic, Whiskey Sour. And the modern Gold Rush, a honey-sweetened variation that helped redefine the Sour family for a new generation. Until next time, keep exploring the past one drink at a time. As we dive deeper into the Barkive.