Monday, April 12, 2010

Caipirinha! Brazil's National Cocktail

My brother is having a Brazilian Barbecue this weekend and I wanted to come up with a drink to have at it. I did some research and found out that the Caipirinha is considered Brazil's national cocktail. Traditionally the Caipirinha is made with limes and Cachaça, which is made from fermented sugar cane. It is a pretty simple recipe and relies a lot on the alcohol which makes it difficult to make it into a mocktail. My first step was to search around and see if any Non-alcoholic recipes existed. I found a few, but wanted to test them out and then put my own mark on it as well. I recently purchased some sugar cane syrup which I thought would add an authentic taste since the alcohol is derived from fermented sugar cane. I used myself, my wife Whitney, and my sister Bieanna as the guinea pigs. We tried it with and without the sugar cane syrup. While it tasted fine either way, we preferred the addition of the sugar cane syrup to give it a little something extra. It turned out a success and here is the finished recipe:

Non-alcoholic Caipirinha

Ingredients
1/2 lime quartered
sugar
ginger beer
sugar cane syrup
crushed ice

Take the quartered lime and put it in the bottom of a lowball glass. Add sugar to taste (I used about a 1/2 Tbsp or so) to the lime. Muddle the lime to release the juices, but do not do it too vigorously or you will release the pulp and it will not be very nice to drink. Add crushed ice and then fill with ginger beer(I preferr Regatta Ginger Beer). Add just a dash of sugar cane syrup and stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.

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