Guide to Brazil (1): Cachaca liquor

We meant to have the first fotografias from Brasil up today, with the first real stories. Instead, we'll start with the first hint of the Guide to Brazil, with something that was supposed to show up in a latter chapter.

See, this is all because we went to open a suitcase and found out Aunt Becky's gift -- chocolate-mint cachaça -- had broken and spilled through a whole bunch of dad's clothes, the camera bag, his toothbrush and even some of the presents from the Brazilian baby shower for Lil' Genghis. So we'll start by talking about cachaça.

Cachaça is a Brazilian liquor distilled from sugar. It's famously used in a drink called a caipirinha, which mixes the liquor with lime, sugar and ice, as well as a touch of the piranha that helps give it its name.

Brazilians love their cachaça, and take great pride in it. Several hosts in Brazil made a point of finding the most unusual cachaças for us, struggling to find ones that were more illegitimate than the others. Visiting Brazil in the company of Brazilians while in a store with cachaça is something like exploring a great warehouse full of Canadian booze with Al Capone. The more illegitimate or closer to moonshine the cachaça is, the more highly prized it is.

This is a roundabout way of introducing cachaça to our readers, and, eventually, to Lil' Genghis. This is because Brazilians say the liquor has to be tasted to be described. That isn't completely true, because outsiders will be familiar with the smell, which is of course related to the flavor.

So, what does cachaça remind dad of?


Yep. Here we see an avion getting ready to transport a fresh load of mass-produced cachaça. The further the cachaça label is from this image, the more complacent Brazilians are with their national drink.