Similar to the Daiquiri, this strong sweet-sour drink calls for cachaça, a Brazilian take on rum distilled from fermented sugarcane juice. Wildly popular in Brazil, the combination of lime juice, sugar and cachaça was thought to have originated to mask the taste of crudely-produced caçhaca, which, until recently, was widely considered a peasants’ spirit. As production techniques have improved, so has the cocktail. Riding the Mojito’s recent wave of popularity, the Caipirinha has been gaining traction in the United States, no doubt on account of a new wave of quality cachaça imports finally making their way stateside.
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