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The 5 Essential Cachaça Cocktails

If you’re new to cachaça and looking for the essential cocktails to drink while exploring this Brazilian spirit, look no further. These recipes should cover all your cocktail bases: both classic and modern recipes that range from citrusy, to sweet, and, of course, boozy and bitter. There is a cocktail here for every palate

PS – If there are any that you think I need to add, leave a comment!

Cachaça Cocktail Recipes


1. Caipirinha

This cocktail often serves as an introduction to the entire category, as it should. You can’t beat the simplicity of a caipirinha. Cachaça, lime, and sugar–all ingredients that you should have at hand. Simply muddle, shake, and pour it all into a glass. Repeat as needed.

Print Recipe
5 from 3 votes

Caipirinha

The caipirinha the national drink of Brazil and the perfect choice for a hot summer's day.
Course: Cocktail
Keyword: Brazil, Cachaça, lime
Servings: 1

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. cachaça
  • ½ lime (quartered)
  • 1-2 tsp. superfine sugar

Instructions

  • Muddle quartered lime and sugar in a cocktail shaker.
  • Add cachaça and ice, then shake until chilled.
  • Pour, unstrained, into a chilled glass.

2. The Oscar

You’ve probably never heard of The Oscar. I discovered it in the Avuá Cachaça recipe book, and it’s an amazing combo. The recipe only specifies to use an amaro, which is a very broad term. (Amaro is Italian for “bitter liqueur”.) I find Averna to be a good choice. I’d imagine Cynar would also work well.

Bonus: If you’re looking for a quick shot, go with equal parts cachaça and Averna.

The Oscar cocktail
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4.50 from 2 votes

The Oscar

Course: Cocktail
Keyword: amaro, orgeat, stirred
Servings: 0
Author: Luis Gil, Little Branch

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. Avuá Cachaça Amburana
  • 1 oz. amaro (Averna is a good choice)
  • 1 oz. orgeat

Instructions

  • Combine ingedients in a cocktial shaker with ice and shake until chilled.
  • Strain into a rocks glass over a large cube.
  • Garnish with an expressed lemon peel.

3. Italian in Rio

The Italian part of this recipe comes from the use of Aperol. The recipe skews slightly towards the bitter and complex, and is the perfect choice for any cocktail aficionado. The celery bitters add a nice dash of complexity (Bitter Truth makes an excellent bottle), but could be omitted or swapped for another bitter. Citrus, grapefruit, or lemon are also great options!

Italian in Rio

Course: Cocktail
Keyword: Aperol, Cachaça, celery bitters, stirred
Servings: 1

Ingredients

  • oz. Avuá Cachaça Prata
  • 1 oz. Aperol
  • 1 oz. Dolin dry vermouth
  • 1 dash celery bitters

Instructions

  • Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled.
  • Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

4. Pan Am

Another stirred cocktail, this one is on the sweeter side. This cocktail was created at Little Branch in NYC, one of the famous bars of the late Sasha Petraske.

Pan Am cocktail
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5 from 2 votes

Pan Am

This cocktail was created by Cervantes Ramirez at Little Branch. This was part of an internal cocktail competition, that Sasha Petraske held to find interesting ways to use Avuá Cachaça Amburana.
(I've seen a few versions of this recipe that feature different ratios. This is the version that Avuá features.)
Course: Cocktail
Keyword: Cachaça, dry vermouth, stirred, triple sec
Servings: 1
Author: Cervantes Ramirez

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. Avuá Cachaça Amburana
  • ½ oz. triple sec
  • ¼ oz. dry vermouth
  • orange twist (garnish)

Instructions

  • Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled.
  • Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with expressed orange twist.

5. Batida

This is another popular Brazilian cachaça drink. In Portuguese, batida means shaken or milkshake. An alternative way to make this is to use a juice instead of passion fruit syrup and fresh lime juice. The juice used is fairly interchangeable, but tropical styles work best.

Using high quality juices will always yield a better result than corn-syrup filled concentrates and blends, which will also throw off the recipe’s balance. Lakewood makes good juices that you should be able to find at a good grocery store or on Amazon. If you don’t have access to a quality blender, pellet-style ice like Sonic or Chick-fil-A sell works great!

Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Batida

Course: Cocktail
Cuisine: Brazillian
Keyword: Cachaça, coconut milk, passion fruit, sweet vermouth, tropical
Servings: 1

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. cachaça
  • 1 oz. passion fruit syrup (Liber & Co. makes a great one)
  • ½ oz. coconut milk
  • ½ oz. lime juice

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients with ½ cup of ice in a blender and blend until smooth. (Using a cocktail shaker will yield slightly different results, but it's an option.)
  • Pour into a rocks glass and garnish with a pineapple leaf.

Looking for more info on cachaça? Don’t miss my interview with Avuá Cachaça co-founder, Peter Nevenglosky.

Read the full article here.


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2 thoughts on “The 5 Essential Cachaça Cocktails”

  • Caipirinha and Batida ok. The others cocktails are completely unknown here in Brazil. Rabo de Galo (cachaça and sweet vermouth created ins the 50s) is part of this trilogy. You can add Bombeirinho (Cachaça, lime, currant syrup from the 80s). And if you like something contemporary Macunaima (Cachaça, lime, sugar syrup, fernet) created in 2014. If you like to know the history of each one of these check https://www.diffordsguide.com/pt-br/encyclopedia/2110/br/cocktails

    • Very nice! Yes, the Pan Am is of some notoriety here, but I can understand that the others aren’t traditional Brazilian cocktails. I’ll have to try the Rabo de Galo tonight with some aged cachaça and Cocchi Vermouth di Torino. Sounds like a nice Manhattan riff!

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