From the September issue of Forum
By Claudia Quinonez, AmSoc board member
Ask Brazilians about their national drink and they will quickly detail the caipirinha, a mix of tropical fruits, sugar, ice and cachaça that combine into the exotic cocktail which has caught fire internationally. As delicious as they are, they hide an entire parallel universe unknown even to most Brazilians: the reward of specialty cachaças.
With over 5,000 brands, specialty cachaças are artesian spirits made from fresh sugarcane juice, fermented and distilled, using an all-natural fermentation process. Its alcohol strength ranges anywhere from 38 to 48 percent.
Each specialty brand has both un-aged and wooden-aged versions. Technically speaking, sugar cane produces one of the best spirits because when fermented, you have the perfect concentration of sugar, ready to be distilled. That makes the distillation of a cachaça superior to whiskey, according to specialists. While you must age a whiskey before it becomes drinkable, you can choose to age a cachaça or consume it right off the traditional stills, or alambiques, used for distillation.
The aging process brings another fabulous aspect to this experience. Prime cachaças age in wood barrels made from over 26 different native Brazilian trees, giving them different body and characteristics. As even the most seasoned people around the world are only used to oak barrel-aged spirits, the discovery of these unexpected notes can intrigue even the most experienced connoisseur.
There are oak-aged cachaças that give you that familiar base taste you can get in any given whiskey, but try the ones aged in umburana, jequitibá, ipê, balsam wood, jatobá or guarandi and you’ll see that there is a wealth of tastes and experiences waiting to be untapped.
Most cachaças available in restaurants and bars in São Paulo are aged in oak, umburana and balsam wood. From my own tasting experiences, umburana tends to give sweetness and tannic qualities to the spirit, while balsam-aged cachaças seem to inherit gorgeously aromatic notes.
Here is an easy start to exploring this universe. Brands Seleta and Boazinha come from the very same distillation process, separated when first out of the alambique. Seleta is then aged in umburana while Boazinha is aged in balsam. The end result is two brands with completely different personalities. I prefer the umburana-aged Seleta as it has both softness and a strong body to it. Boazinha, to me, has too much of an aftertaste that makes me want to have a glass of cold beer in between sips.
Umburana-aged Insinuante, is considered by specialists to be the most feminine of cachaças because of the complexities of its rich and subtle sweetness. I fell in love with it right away when I first tasted it. Other brands of note that you can find in São Paulo restaurants are Claudionor, Velha Januaria, Tabaroa, Canarinho, Beija-flor and Maria da Cruz.
The one thing I’ve learned from my explorations of this universe is that picking the “best” one is just an impossible task. The cult of specialty cachaça followers will heatedly argue, with the same never-ending passion Brazilians discuss soccer, the reasons why the one they prefer is far superior. It’s a fun and interesting debate that might give you an insight into the emotional and passionate soul of Brazilians, but that will just never reach a rational conclusion.
The one cachaça which seems to have an iconic status is Anisio Santiago. From the Minas Gerais area of Salinas, famous for its numerous distillers, Anisio Santiago is aged in balsam barrels for about five years in a limited production of no more than 7,000 liters per year. First time I tasted it, I thought to myself, “Armagnac!”
Anisio Santiago is hard to find, and the dose is pricey when compared to all others, ranging from R$35 to R$45 while you would normally pay something like R$10 for a generous dose of all the others. A place to taste the iconic brand is Brazilian restaurant Dalva e Dito (Rua Padre João Manuel, 115 - Jardins, 3064 6183) for an all around fabulous gastronomic experience. The bottle is given the status of a rare drink and poured in a ritualistic way that lives up to its status.
Some of the restaurants that connoisseurs gather every once in a while are Xopotó (Rua Dr. Fadlo Haidar, 136, Vila Olimpia, 3849 1267) with a solid selection of cachaças from Minas Gerais — and great petiscos; Astor (Rua Delfina, 163, Vila Madalena, 3815 1364) specialized in what they call bohemian cuisine; Esch Café (Al. Lorena, 1899, Jardins) whose barman, Derivan, is the responsible for the inclusion of caipirinha in the International Bartenders Association Official Cocktail list that boosted it to stardom; and Restaurante e Cachaçaria Mocotó (Av. Ns. Senhora do Loreto, 1100, Vila Medeiros, 2951 3056) where the more than 400 brands available would require more than one tasting trip. Enjoy!
A useful link: http://www.cartadacachaca.com/produtos_en.php