Caipirinha is lime, sugar, ice, and Brazilian sugarcane spirit (cachaça). Cachaça prata (silver). Build one at a time.
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The lime
The Brazilian lime is limão taiti, the Persian or Tahiti lime. In a US store that is a Persian lime, the common green lime, not a giant lemon and not a Key lime. One medium lime per glass.
The glass
A usual home measure: 1 medium limão taiti with the white pith removed, 2 teaspoons sugar (2 colheres de chá/ about 10 g), 60 ml cachaça, and ice to fill an old-fashioned or rocks glass. Some home recipes pour 2 colheres de sobremesa of sugar, a dessert-spoon measure that runs sweeter. Stay with 2 colheres de chá/ 10 g unless the lime is unusually sour.
Ingredients (one glass)
- 1 Persian lime (limão taiti)
- 2 teaspoons (10 g) sugar, 2 colheres de chá
- 60 ml (2 fl oz) cachaça prata (white/ silver), 38–48% ABV
- Large ice cubes to fill the glass
A bartender pour of 50 ml white cachaça and 20 ml simple syrup with one lime is also fine. Stay with 60 ml cachaça, 1 lime, 10 g sugar, and ice.
Cut, pith, and muddle
- Cut both ends off the lime. Quarter it.
- Cut out the white pith and core so the drink does not go bitter.
- Put the pieces in the glass with the sugar. Muddle gently, 5 to 8 presses. The goal is juice and a little oil from the green peel. Muddle just enough to oil the sugar, not into a mash.
Ice, stir, serve
- Add large ice cubes and the cachaça. Stir.
- Serve immediately. Crushed ice melts fast and waters the glass down. Build each glass as you pour. A pitcher that sits turns bitter.
How you know it is done
The sugar is dissolved, the lime oil is in the glass, and the ice is fresh.
On the table
Build one at a time. Serve immediately. Build each glass as you pour. A pitcher that sits turns bitter.
The Brazilian sugarcane spirit (cachaça)
Unaged cachaça prata, labeled prata or silver, in the 38–48% ABV range. The bottles are Cachaça 51 (Pirassununga), Ypióca Prata, and Leblon. That is the spirit this drink is built on. Vodka makes a caipiroska. Rum is a different drink.
Passion-fruit caipirinha (caipirinha de maracujá)
The passion-fruit glass is the pulp of half a passion fruit, 15 ml (1 tablespoon) lime juice, sugar starting at 1 teaspoon (1 colher de chá/ 4 g), and 50–60 ml (1.7–2 fl oz) cachaça. Use the same 60 ml pour unless matching a 50 ml bar dose. A handheld citrus juicer is the one tool for that 15 ml of lime juice. Frozen passion-fruit pulp from a US Latin market works when fresh fruit is not in the store.
What to buy
Juicer
- Low: OXO Good Grips Small citrus juicer — enough juice for limeade or one glass.
- Usual mid: Chef’n FreshForce citrus juicer — more juice per lime, the usual mid.
- High: The same Chef’n FreshForce — a standing juicer is more than this glass needs.
Next cooks
- Across Brazil
- Homemade juices for a Brazilian barbecue
- Guaraná soda for a Brazilian barbecue (guaraná)
Region: Sudeste.
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