Sours · Cachaça · IBA official
Caipirinha
Muddled lime, sugar and grassy cachaça over crushed ice
Fresh lime wedges muddled with sugar, then mixed with cachaça over crushed ice. Bright, sharp and rustic, with the lime peel's oils and the spirit's grassy sugarcane character front and centre. Brazil's national cocktail, made for sunshine and grilled food.
- Glass
- Rocks glass
- Ice
- Crushed ice
- Technique
- Built in the glass · Muddled
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Time
- 3 min
- Strength
- ≈ 23% ABV
Ingredients
- 4 wedgesLime wedgesmuddled
- 15 mlSimple syrup (1:1)muddled½ oz
- 60 mlCachaça2 oz
- GarnishNone
≈ 103 ml served · 1.9 standard drinks
Substitutes: Rich demerara syrup (2:1) can stand in for Simple syrup (1:1). White rum can stand in for Cachaça.
Method
- 1
Put the lime wedges in a rocks glass and add the simple syrup.
- 2
Muddle firmly to press out the juice and the oils from the peel.
- 3
Fill the glass with crushed ice and pour in the cachaça.
- 4
Stir from the bottom up to mix, then top with a little more crushed ice.
History
Brazil's national cocktail is generally thought to have taken shape in the countryside of São Paulo state in the early 20th century; a popular account links it to a folk remedy of lime, garlic and honey used during the 1918 flu pandemic. Brazilian regulations now define it as a drink made with cachaça, lime and sugar.
- Origin
- Brazil
Bartender's notes
- In Brazil it's traditionally made with about two teaspoons of granulated sugar muddled with the lime – the crystals help scrape the oils from the peel.
- Trim away the white core of the lime before cutting it into wedges; it makes the drink bitter.
- Made with vodka instead of cachaça, it becomes a Caipiroska.
