Puck’s Blog

I first encountered the caipirinha at Samaba Restaurant in Vancouver, where our Brazilian waitress explained the importance of the drink to Brazil, where it is their national drink.

First, here’s an excellent video showing how to make one.  I use Splenda in place of the sugar and it turns out just as good.

As you might guess from “lime + sugar + ice + booze” the drink can start off fairly strong.  But, as our waitress told us, in Brazil people will stir their caipirinha and let the ice melt until the mixture is to their taste, and then sip it.  You’ll see people at roadside restaurants everywhere twirling their straws in their ice-filled glasses, waiting for that magical moment.

A good muddler — the stick he calls “tender loving care” — is required.  I’ve tried making them with other methods, but once I got a good wooden muddler the lime zest really came through in the drink’s flavour.

I’ve had no problem finding cachaça locally — it’s in the rum section of both our government liquor store and a private one, at comparable prices to regular rum.  You can make a caiprinha with rum, but it’s not exactly the same — cachaça is a much purer tasting liquor.