Caipirinha (Cachaça, Lime and Sugar)

Name: Caipirinha (Cachaça, Lime and Sugar)
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 6 ice cubes; 1 tablespoon sugar (white sugar; it needs the grain to help crush the lime); 1 ounce cachaça (a full caipirinha usually carries about two ounces); 1/2 ounce lime juice; 6 slices lime (the peel goes in too, which is where the aroma comes from)

Lime and sugar worked together with cachaça over ice. Brazil's national cocktail, three ingredients, and the whole technique is in how you treat the lime.

Total: 5

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Cachaça, lime and sugar. Brazil's national cocktail has three ingredients and one technique, and the technique is entirely about the lime.

Cachaça is not rum

They are both made from sugar cane and that is where the similarity stops.

Rum is distilled from molasses, the byproduct left after sugar is extracted. Cachaça is distilled from fresh pressed cane juice, which gives it a grassier, more vegetal character that is unmistakable once you have tasted the two side by side.

Substituting white rum gives you a drink called a caipirissima. It is perfectly pleasant and it is not a caipirinha.

The peel is half the drink

Lime juice provides the acidity. The peel provides the aromatic oils, and those oils are most of what you smell when you lift the glass.

What ruins it is the white pith underneath, which is bitter and cannot be removed once it is in. So: press the peel, roll it, squeeze it, but do not grind it to a paste. The recipe here says not to overdo it, and that is why.

Sugar does the crushing

Use white granulated sugar, not syrup and not caster. The grains act as an abrasive against the lime, which is how the oils come out of the peel in the first place.

Syrup dissolves instantly and does none of that work, which is why a caipirinha made with syrup tastes flatter even when the proportions are identical.

The usual method is simpler

This recipe uses a shaker. The standard way is simpler still: quarter a lime into a heavy glass, add the sugar, muddle them together, fill with crushed ice and pour the cachaça over.

Same drink, one fewer piece of equipment, and the lime pieces stay in the glass, which is how it is served in Brazil.

More cocktails

Cuba Libre — rum, Coke and lime.
Piña Colada — served in the pineapple.
Black Russian — two ingredients, no shaker.
Whiskey Sour — with egg white foam.
Margarita — the other lime cocktail.

Caipirinha FAQ

Can I use rum instead of cachaça?

You can, and the drink then has a different name: a caipirissima. Rum is distilled from molasses and cachaça from fresh pressed cane juice, which gives cachaça a grassier flavour that is the point of the drink.

Why granulated sugar and not syrup?

The sugar grains act as an abrasive that crushes the lime peel and releases its oils. Syrup dissolves instantly and does none of that work, so the drink comes out flatter even with identical proportions.

How hard should I crush the lime?

Enough to release the oils from the peel, not enough to grind the white pith underneath. The pith is bitter and there is no way to take it back out. Press and twist rather than pound.

Do I need a shaker?

No. The usual Brazilian method is to muddle quartered lime with sugar directly in a heavy glass, fill with crushed ice and pour the cachaça over. The lime pieces stay in the glass.

Is one ounce of cachaça enough?

It is on the modest side. A typical caipirinha uses closer to two ounces, around 60 ml. One ounce gives a lighter drink where the lime dominates, which some people prefer.

📖 Recipe