Cachaça from Brazil

Cachaça is the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil. The average Brazilian drinks about three gallons of Cachaça annually. Cachaça is the product of the distillation of fermented sugarcane juice, with its alcohol strength between 38 and 48 percent by volume. Up to six grams per liter of sugar may be added.

Cachaça is often said to differ from rum in that it is made from sugarcane juice while rum is made from either molasses or sugarcane juice then aged in oak barrels.

1.3 billion liters of Cachaça are produced each year. Only 1 percent of this production is exported. Outside Brazil, cachaca is used almost exclusively as an ingredient in tropical drinks, with the caipirinha being the most famous cocktail.

Cachaça was invented by the first Portuguese settlers of Brazil, in the region around the town of Sao Vicente, sometime between 1532 and 1548. Workers at local sugar mills first discovered that the sugarcane juice "garapa", cooked and left standing, would sour, ferment, and turn into a mild alcoholic beverage. The product, disparagingly named cagaca, was consumed by slaves, as a cheap substitute of cauim from the Indians. Soon someone had the idea of distilling it, and thus cachaca was born.

Cachaça distilleries multiplied through colonial Brazil during the 16th and 17th centuries. Portugal eventually took notice and in order to protect the market for Portuguese made grappa "bagaceira", tried several times to outlaw the manufacture and consumption of the new spirit. In 1756, after a century of failure to suppress it, the Crown gave up and levied a tax on cachaca. This tax brought substantial revenue to the Treasury and contributed to the reconstruction following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami.

Currently there are more than 4,000 different brands of cachaca available in Brazil. Early in its history it was consumed mainly by Africans, peasants, and members of the lower class. As is often the case, elitists considered it a low drink, unfit for exclusive bars and tables. However, the finer points of the product gained wider and wider appreciation, and it is now a very popular drink, considered by some to be in the same class as whiskey and wine. The most prized brands are produced in Pirassununga, Sao Paulo. The Brazilian government and producer associations have recently acted to promote the export of cachaca.