It was nowhere to be found in the 9th edition of the Great Bar Textbook by Swiss Barkeeper legend Harry Schrämli from 1979. But just a few years later, with lime and muddler in tow, it made the leap across the pond, spread across Switzerland and has been defending its place on the bar menus of the most remote train station buffets and village festivals ever since: the Brazilian national spirit cachaça.
Then, as now, Barkeeper mainly reach for this sugar cane schnapps for one reason: someone has ordered another caipirinha ... The crème de la crème of urban cocktail bars may have long since banned the caipirinha and its declinations from the menu - but in many pubs and clubs, pubs and bistros, the muddler is still widely used. The export figures also prove this. Although the Federal Office for Customs and Border Protection - unlike Brazil - combines the categories of cachaça and rum, as Brazilian rum is a niche spirit of a niche spirit, the comparison of imports by country of origin is sufficiently meaningful.
In terms of volume, 8.3% of Swiss imports of sugar cane distillates last year came from Brazil. In terms of volume, Germany is the largest importer with 22.7%. In terms of turnover, however, Germany's share is only twelve percent. This leads to the conclusion that our northern neighbor primarily serves cheap goods. And there is no reason why this should be any different in Switzerland. Still!
These are the new cachaça categories
The cachaças available outside of Brazil are only a tiny fraction of what this spirit has to offer. Not only is the majority of production consumed in the country with the seventh largest population in the world, but even the local tax authorities are unaware of many distilleries. Most of the products known here are sold as "cachaça". They are distilled in a continuous column still process at low cost and to a higher alcohol content.
It is an open secret that bioethanol for fuel is often produced in the same plants. Cachaça de Alambique", now a cachaça category of its own, is considered to be of higher quality and is distilled in copper stills. This allows the grassy, floral and fruity notes of the sugar cane to be expressed much more strongly. Up to this point, cachaça has been associated with rhum agricole from the French Antilles.
However, it is when the distillates made from sugar cane juice are matured in a barrel that the styles diverge significantly. Brazil plays a special role here, not only in sugar cane distillates, but in the world of spirits in general. When people talk about "wood" in spirits, they mean American or European oak in 99 percent of cases. There are other types of wood, such as mizunara, chestnut, robinia and cherry, which are used for barrel construction and ageing. But in the country, which is named after a type of wood, around twenty types of tree are used to store cachaça.
This article appeared in
issue 3-2024
BAR NEWS magazine as single issue
Age and color, deceptive indicators even with single malts, are even less meaningful with cachaça. The woods give off different colors and aromas. Umburana or amburana, a type of cherry tree, is fruity, sweet and gives off a light golden color. Ipê is a very hard wood that can integrate aromas of tropical fruits such as dried mango into cachaça. Other types of wood include Grápia and Ariribá. In addition to the types of wood, there are of course also oak barrels pre-filled with other spirits.
There are also cachaças that have been aged in ex-islay or ex-cognac barrels. The categorization according to barrel ageing is not particularly plausible. For "Cachaça envelhecida", at least half of the volume must be stored for one year in a wooden container of up to 700 liters. The term "armazenada" is used for other cachaças aged in wood.
Cachaça may be sweetened with up to six grams per liter. For the cachaça adoçada (sweetened) category, between six and 30 grams of sugar may be added. High-quality cachaças perfectly express the aromas of the sugar cane, harmonize with the exceptional wood notes when aged in barrels and are also a pleasure to drink straight.
