It’s starting to feel like summer here in DC, and summer means summer drinks.  Which may be why I’ve been on such a Latin American drinks kick, because so many Latin American drinks are perfect for summer: sweet, with lots of fruit and lots of ice, and a bit of kick, delicious and refreshing.  Here’s another to add to that list, a twist on Brazil’s national cocktail, the Cherry Caipirinha. – Andrew

Read below for the full recipe!

Cherry Caipirinha

2 oz Cachaça
1/4-1/2 oz Simple Syrup
1/2 Lime
3-4 Cherries
Soda Water

Quarter the lime half and pit the cherries, if needed.  Add the fruit and syrup to a rocks glass or tumbler, then muddle everything together very well.  Add the Cachaça and lots of crushed ice.  Top with soda water, give it a stir, then garnish with a bit of sugar cane (optional but pretty cool) and enjoy!

 

The Caipirinha is up there on my list of perfect summer drinks.  It’s sweet and tart, with lots of fresh flavor from the Cachaça, and enormously refreshing thanks to all that ice and soda water.  If you order a Caipirinha in the U.S., you’re most likely to get one made just with lime, which is a pretty great drink by itself.  But Brazilians use all kinds of fruit, from mango to kiwi to pineapple or passionfruit, in their Caipirinhas, so feel free to add or subtract fruit to this recipe.

The Caipirinha’s name reveals its humble origins as a rustic, easy-to-make version of drinks like the Daiquiri: it means something along the lines of “little country bumpkin” in Brazilian Portuguese.  But the Caipirinha has grown to be wildly popular all throughout Brazil and has been winding its way through the States in recent years.  Give one a try and you’ll see why.

 

The same drink might be pretty good, but a bit more ho-hum, without its key ingredient: the Brazilian spirit Cachaça (pronounced, roughly, ka-SHA-sa).  Cachaça is a close relative of rum, but Cachaça – unlike rum, which is usually distilled from fermented molasses – is distilled directly from fermented sugar cane juice.  The cane juice has to be processed soon after it is harvested, which means the Cachaça retains more flavors from the sugar cane, and much more of a sense of the place where it was made.  Cachaça is a funky spirit with lots of complex vegetal flavors, like a much earthier version of your favorite rum.  Fortunately, it’s increasingly easy to find – go pick some up!

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

In keeping with last week’s drink, here’s another fantastic Latin American cocktail, this one from South America’s cuisine capital, Peru: the Pisco Sour.  The Pisco Sour is sweet and tart, like a Sour should be, with a complexly herbal aroma from the bitters, but should showcase the Pisco: fruity and vegetal, like fresh grass, smooth but with a citrusy finish.  This drink incorporates raw egg white, and that’s not for everyone.  You can make a Pisco Sour without the egg, and it will still be a tasty Sour.  But a true Pisco Sour with the egg is silky and rich, with a gorgeous head of foam that you’d miss out on.

Read below for the full recipe!

Pisco Sour

2 oz Pisco
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
1 Egg White (you can probably get by with 1/2 per drink)
Angostura Bitters

Combine the Pisco (a clear Peruvian or Chilean grape Brandy), juice, syrup, and egg white in a shaker with a flat top (that is, a Boston or Parisian Shaker).  Add one or two big ice cubes.  Cocktail Kingdom sells a tray for making 2 inch cubes that are perfect for many cocktails like this.  Shake hard – the idea is to use the ice cubes as a piston to give this drink its great froth.  Strain well, making sure to shake out all the froth.  Top with the bitters and, if you’re feeling artistic, use a toothpick to draw a shape or pattern in the froth, then enjoy!

 

Peru’s grape and Pisco industries, introduced by the Spanish at least by the 16th century, are centered around the fertile river valleys that make life possible along the country’s desert coast, towns like Ica and, of course, Pisco.  Pisco is distilled from the first pressing of grapes and aged only in non-reactive vessels, such as glass or the more traditional botijas – giant clay pots – which leaves the spirit clear but mellow.  Americans began drinking lots of Pisco in the 1850s, when it was easy to import the spirit to Gold Rush California (a hot bed of cocktail innovation).  It largely disappeared from the U.S. during Prohibition, but was reintroduced after Victor Morris, an American bartender living in Peru, invented the Pisco Sour around 1920; the drink eventually made its way back here.  A good thing it did!

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper