This article will address Caipirinha, a topic that has gained relevance in recent years due to its impact on various areas of daily life. Caipirinha is a phenomenon that has aroused the interest of experts and researchers worldwide, generating a broad debate in society. Along these lines, the importance of Caipirinha, its evolution over time and the possible future scenarios in which it could influence will be analyzed in depth. In addition, different perspectives on this topic will be presented, as well as possible solutions or approaches to address its implications. Ultimately, this article seeks to offer a comprehensive view on Caipirinha, with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of its impact and possible implications in the future.
Place lime and sugar into a double old fashioned glass and muddle gently. Fill the glass with cracked ice and add Cachaça. Stir gently to involve ingredients.
Caipirinha (Portuguese pronunciation:[kajpiˈɾĩɲɐ]) is Brazil's national cocktail from São Paulo, made with cachaça (sugarcane hard liquor), sugar, and lime. The drink is prepared by mixing the fruit and the sugar together, then adding the liquor. This can be made in a single large glass to be shared among people, or in a larger jar, from which it is served in individual glasses.
History
Although the origin of the drink is unknown, there is a consensus in the academic community that Caipirinha was invented in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil in 1918. Some accounts say it came about around 1918 in the region of Alentejo in Portugal, with a popular recipe made with lemon, garlic, and honey, indicated for patients with the Spanish flu. Another account is that Caipirinha is based on Poncha, an alcoholic drink from Madeira, Portugal. The main ingredient is aguardente de cana, which is made from sugar cane. Sugar cane production was switched from Madeira to Brazil by the Portuguese as they needed more land to plant it on. Before this people in Madeira had already created aguardente de cana, which was the ancestor to cachaça.
Today, it is still used as a tonic for the common cold. Commonly, practitioners add some distilled spirits to home remedies to expedite the therapeutic effect. Aguardente was commonly used. "Until one day, someone decided to remove the garlic and honey. Then added a few tablespoons of sugar to reduce the acidity of the lime. The ice came next, to ward off the heat," explains Carlos Lima, executive director of IBRAC (Brazilian Institute of Cachaça).
According to historians, the caipirinha was invented by landowning farmers in the region of Piracicaba, the interior of the State of São Paulo during the 19th century as a local drink for 'high standard' events and parties (parties at Barão de Serra Negra palace), a reflection of the strong sugarcane culture in the region.
Original recipe use a kind of Lemon called "galeguinho", a small yellow/green lemon very common in São Paulo countryside houses' backyards. Currently, it is made with a bigger green lemon called Tahiti lemon, a specie of lemon more spread around the country markets.
The caipirinha is the strongest national cocktail of Brazil, and is imbibed in restaurants, bars, and many households throughout the country. Once almost unknown outside Brazil, the drink became more popular and more widely available in recent years, in large part due to the rising availability of first-rate brands of cachaça outside Brazil. The International Bartenders Association designated it as one of its Official Cocktails, as a Contemporary Classic.
Name
The word caipirinha is the diminutive of the word caipira, which in Brazilian Portuguese refers to someone from the countryside (specifically, someone from the rural parts of south-central Brazil), similar to US Englishhillbilly or the Lowland Scots teuchter. Caipira is a two-gender noun. The diminutive mostly refers to the drink, in which case it is a feminine noun.
Variations
Although Brazilian law (Decree 6.871 based on Normative Ruling 55, from Oct. 31, 2008) as well as the International Bartenders Association (IBA) allow the use of the name caipirinha for the version with lime only, the term is often used to describe any cachaça-and-fruit-juice drink with the fruit's name (e.g., a passionfruit caipirinha, kiwifruit caipirinha or strawberry caipirinha).
^"Casa e Jardim - NOTÍCIAS - A história da caipirinha" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2012-12-02. Até que um dia alguém resolveu tirar o alho e o mel. Depois, acrescentaram umas colheres de açúcar para reduzir a acidez do limão. O gelo veio em seguida, para espantar o calor
^Willey, Rob (February 2006). "Everyday with Rachael Ray". Cane and Able. Retrieved 2007-01-14. The caipirinha—a sour-sweet combination of crushed limes, sugar, and cachaça— become the darling of American bartenders, and first-rate cachaça is at last finding a place on American liquor-store shelves.
^"CAIPIRINHA DE MARACUJÁ" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Destilaria de Cachaça Maison Leblon. 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-04-27. Retrieved 2021-04-27.