THE SECRETS OF A PERFECT CAIPIRINHA

I love making cocktails, and Caipirinha is definitely one of my specialities. Being the good half Brazilian that I am, this was probably the first cocktail I learned how to make. It’s almost impossible to find a good Caipirinha in Rome, almost impossible! It sounds easy enough, few ingredients, shake everything, how can you go wrong right? Well, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

• Ice
• Sugar
• Lemon or Lime
• Cachaça

Now let’s break the secrets:

This is probably the secret for a good caipirinha. Ice needs to be crushed. If you leave big chunks of ice it will be too strong. Normally I’ll put the ice in a kitchen cloth and bang it against the counter. This is specially fun when there’re people around.

if you’re going for a more exotic cocktail any fruit will do. Strawberries and blackberries are good options during winter. But the typical one is done with Lime, I prefer to it with Lemons simply because I have a tree in my garden that has enough lemons to feed about 100 families.

The secret with limes though, is to cut it in wedges and remove the white central part of the lime.

Cachaça is a distilled spirit made from sugarcane. This can be easily replaced by vodka, if you’re not going for the traditional thing.

In a glass add the lime wedges (no white parts!!!) and two table spoons of sugar. Using a muddler get all those lime juices out. Don’t worry, if you don’t have a cocktail muddler you can use the back of a knife or the back of a wooden spoon to press the lime with the sugar, it just takes a little longer.

Add the crushed ice and a shot (25ml) of cachaça. Make sure to stir well either on a cocktail shaker or using a spoon, so the sugar at the bottom of the glass mixes in with the spirit.

Saúde!