A little cup of summer is how I’d describe this delicious Brazilian drink.

The Caipirinha, pronounced ‘Kai-Pur-reen-Yah’ and translates as ‘little countryside drink’, is made by muddling green lemons which are native to Brazil (limes are best used when these are not available) and mixing with sugar and cachaça.

Find out more about Cachaça on our blog.

History

As with many cocktails – the history of the Caipirinha is a little muddled to say the least!

Thought to have originated in Paratay – São Paulo – Brazil it is no longer simply Brazils national drink but has now become a great classic cocktail around the world.

Some believe that it was initially prepared as a medicine to ease the effects of the Spanish Flu towards the end of World War I. With the original recipe consisting of cachaça, green lemon, honey and garlic. The green lemon was used for it’s high concentration of vitamin C and cachaça contained the alcohol needed to expedite the absorption of the vitamins into in the organism. Sometime, somewhere, someone decided to replace honey and garlic with sugar and ice and thus the modern day caipirinha was born!

Recipe

3/4 of a fresh lime (cut into wedges)

40ml Cachaça

20ml Sugar syrup (2:1 ratio)

Method

Muddle the lime in the bottom of a robust glass to release both some juices and the oils from the skin. Pour the sugar into the glass and mix, then add the cachaça. Fill the glass with ice and stir.

Many bars now serve this with crushed ice however the suggested serve is in fact cubed ice – so go cubed and make the real deal!

Our August cocktail kit will be based around the Caipirinha – join now to be the first to try this kit.