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Drink of the Month -JUNE 2012- Cachaca

Sounds like someone needs a proper muddler :)

In a pinch you could always use one of those mini baseball bats, or even a chunk of dowel rod.
 
The granite pestle should work OK right in the glass if you're careful. Lots of people use heavy steel muddlers when mixing.

I put the ice cubes in a zip loc and then wrap with a clean smooth cotton towel and crush them by lightly hammering with a straight rolling pin. I thought about muddling with the end of the rolling pin, but it seems a little risky since it's so long. If I'm doing lots of cocktails I just use the blender.

When I was in college I had one of those old fashion ice grinders that you screw into the wall. The ICE-O-MATIC, I think it was called. It was AWESOME, I loved that thing. Can't believe I left it at my old apartment when I moved out.
 
Mixed some up last night - Pretty tasty, but I think I need to adjust my method of attack slightly. I was using an actual (granite) mortar & pestle to crush the ice and the limes, and I suspect I was overdoing it on the limes. I found I had to add around 2 heaping teaspoons of icing sugar to get the flavour where I wanted it. Possibly the limes are to blame as well - they weren't super-ripe.

I'll probably try again tonight.

Kazeryu, what brand of Cachaca did you end up with? Just curious.
 
...When I was in college I had one of those old fashion ice grinders that you screw into the wall. The ICE-O-MATIC, I think it was called. It was AWESOME, I loved that thing. Can't believe I left it at my old apartment when I moved out.

I've got a tabletop version of the ice-o-matic, works great and you can adjust the grind from coarse to medium to fine. Usually anything-o-matic is going to be cool. You can find them for cheap in thrift stores and sometimes on ebay (don't know about lately, but there ya go). I've got a buddy who invested in the Snoopy snow cone machine to make specialty ice cones for tiki drinks, works pretty good too.
 
I've got a tabletop version of the ice-o-matic, works great and you can adjust the grind from coarse to medium to fine. Usually anything-o-matic is going to be cool. You can find them for cheap in thrift stores and sometimes on ebay (don't know about lately, but there ya go). I've got a buddy who invested in the Snoopy snow cone machine to make specialty ice cones for tiki drinks, works pretty good too.

That's outstanding! The Snoopy Snowcone Machine. The SSM jingle from my childhood just popped into my head out of thin air when I read that. And you're right, I hadn't thought of it before, but yeah, just about anything "o-matic" is cool...like Jonathan Richman's Dodge Veg-O-Matic.
 
Interesting that this became the drink of the month since I just picked up a bottle of Leblon before seeing this thread.
It goes for $25 at the NH state liquor store.

Interesting -- very much like rum at first sip, but a bit harsher and with a different back taste. I like it. Made Caipirianas and the wife and I enjoyed them very much. Kind of a cross between a mintless mojito and a margarita. I'll be making more of these.
 
The brand I purchased is Sagatiba. On a related note, I discovered that they do sell it at one of my local liquor stores - this after chasing halfway across town trying to find some.
 
Been meaning to post my impressions for a while now. I picked up a 1L bottle of Ypioca. My liquor store had a half dozen brands or so. The only other one I recognized from discussions here was Leblon, but that cost double the Ypioca. They had both white and aged. I went with the white. All in all I quite like it. It certainly doesn't have the smoothness or complexity I look for in a sipping liquor but mixed into a Caipirinha it is damn tasty. Makes for a very nice (albeit potent) summer cocktail. I agree with others that the flavor is closer to tequila than Caribbean rum, but it is it's own beast. I may experiment with it a bit and try to find some other things to do with it. Or I may just go buy more limes. Good choice, thanks guys!
 
The brand I purchased is Sagatiba. On a related note, I discovered that they do sell it at one of my local liquor stores - this after chasing halfway across town trying to find some.

Cool! Another brand for the database.

Been meaning to post my impressions for a while now. I picked up a 1L bottle of Ypioca. My liquor store had a half dozen brands or so. The only other one I recognized from discussions here was Leblon, but that cost double the Ypioca. They had both white and aged. I went with the white. All in all I quite like it. It certainly doesn't have the smoothness or complexity I look for in a sipping liquor but mixed into a Caipirinha it is damn tasty. Makes for a very nice (albeit potent) summer cocktail. I agree with others that the flavor is closer to tequila than Caribbean rum, but it is it's own beast. I may experiment with it a bit and try to find some other things to do with it. Or I may just go buy more limes. Good choice, thanks guys!

Big +1 to all of that.

It's never going to be a "sipping" drink, but it works darn well with the limes and sugar. I've been looking at some of the other cocktails that use Cachaca, and a bunch of them have juices and fruits that I've never heard of or seen around here, but I'm going to experiment a little and maybe put a small splash of Cran-Raspberry in the next Caipirinha I make.
 
Just made a Caipirinha. 3 shots cachaca, 2 key limes, tablespoon of raw sugar, splash of soda water. Wish I was on a beach right now...

Think cachaca reminds me of tequila and some (not smokey) moonshine I may or may not have tried :wink:
 
Just made a Caipirinha. 3 shots cachaca, 2 key limes, tablespoon of raw sugar, splash of soda water. Wish I was on a beach right now...

Think cachaca reminds me of tequila and some (not smokey) moonshine I may or may not have tried :wink:

Glad you liked it!
 
Just made a Caipirinha. 3 shots cachaca, 2 key limes, tablespoon of raw sugar, splash of soda water. Wish I was on a beach right now...

Think cachaca reminds me of tequila and some (not smokey) moonshine I may or may not have tried :wink:

I was first introduced to the Caipirinha at an upscale hotel bar in Detroit of all places... Haven't been able to recreate it since, but the addition of soda water just might be what has been missing - thanks for sharing your recipe! Also agree with the comparison to tequila, at least that's my experience with the Leblon brand.
 
I find that powdered sugar works better than granulated. Great cocktail for a hot summer evening. I bought Pitu in Kansas but have found Barrel 61 in OK.
 
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