Cocktails with Cachaça
Cachaça is a sugarcane spirit, and by law only a spirit made in Brazil may carry the name. The key difference from rum is the raw material. Rum is usually made from molasses, the thick dark residue left after boiling sugar; cachaça comes from the juice of freshly cut cane, fermented within hours while it is still fresh. That is the root of the flavor gap: rum leans toward treacle and caramel, while cachaça stays grassy and fresh.
ABV38–48%By law. Mass-market white is bottled at 40%, which is enough for a Caipirinha: the melting ice does dilute it, but the tart lime and sugar keep the drink from going watery. Cachaça from a copper alambique is often stronger, 43–48%, and it reads more clearly in the drink without getting lost in the ice — so if you can find one, it is the better choice for a Caipirinha.
Substitutes for Cachaça
Fresh cane juice is what gives it the grassy edge, and only spirits made the same way keep it. A rum distilled from refinery syrup matches the strength and brings caramel instead, which in a Caipirinha reads as sweetness the drink did not ask for.
On the label
- branca / prata (white)
- Unaged.
- ouro (gold)
- Color only — it can come from the cask or from permitted caramel coloring, so "gold" does not mean "aged".
- envelhecida (aged)
- At least half the spirit has spent a year or more in wood.
