Caipirinha is a Brazilian cocktail, of São Paulo origin, with cachaça (sugarcane hard liquor), sugar, lime, and ice. The drink is prepared by mixing the fruit and the sugar together, then adding the liquor. Known and consumed nationally and internationally, caipirinha is one of the most famous components of Brazilian cuisine, being the most popular national recipe worldwide and often considered the best drink in the country and one of the best cocktails/drinks in the world, having reached third place in 2024, according to the specialized website TasteAtlas. Due to its importance and popularity, the caipirinha was declared Brazilian Cultural Heritage in 2003; in 2019, it was considered Intangible Heritage of Rio de Janeiro, despite its origins in São Paulo. It is part of the list of official cocktails of the International Bartenders Association (IBA).

History

Although the origin of the drink is unknown, there is a consensus in the academic community that Caipirinha was invented in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1918. Some accounts say it came about around 1918 in the region of Alentejo in Portugal, with a popular recipe made with lemon, garlic, and honey, indicated for patients with the Spanish flu. Another account is that Caipirinha is based on Poncha, an alcoholic drink from Madeira, Portugal. The main ingredient is aguardente de cana, which is made from sugar cane. Sugar cane production was switched from Madeira to Brazil by the Portuguese as they needed more land to plant it on. Before this people in Madeira had already created aguardente de cana, which was the ancestor to cachaça. Today, it is still used as a tonic for the common cold. Commonly, practitioners add some distilled spirits to home remedies to expedite the therapeutic effect. Aguardente was commonly used. "Until one day, someone decided to remove the garlic and honey. Then added a few tablespoons of sugar to reduce the acidity of the lime. The ice came next, to ward off the heat," explains Carlos Lima, executive director of IBRAC (Brazilian Institute of Cachaça). According to historians, the caipirinha was invented by landowning farmers in the region of Piracicaba, the interior of the State of São Paulo during the 19th century as a local drink for 'high standard' events and parties (parties at Barão de Serra Negra palace), a reflection of the strong sugarcane culture in the region. Original recipe use a kind of Lemon called "galeguinho", a small yellow/green lemon very common in São Paulo countryside houses' backyards. Currently, it is made with a bigger green lemon called Tahiti lemon, a specie of lemon more spread around the country markets. The caipirinha is the strongest national cocktail of Brazil, and is imbibed in restaurants, bars, and many households throughout the country. Once almost unknown outside Brazil, the drink became more popular and more widely available in recent years, in large part due to the rising availability of first-rate brands of cachaça outside Brazil. The International Bartenders Association designated it as one of its Official Cocktails, as a Contemporary Classic.

Name

The word caipirinha is the diminutive of the word caipira, which in Brazilian Portuguese refers to someone from the countryside (specifically, someone from the rural parts of south-central Brazil), similar to US English hillbilly or the Lowland Scots teuchter. Caipira is a two-gender noun. The diminutive mostly refers to the drink, in which case it is a feminine noun.

Variations

In the world

Having great popularity around the world, countless variations of this drink are known. In some regions, brown sugar is used instead of refined sugar. Even in Brazil, variants with artificial sweeteners or a wide variety of fruits can be found. Furthermore, cachaça is sometimes replaced by vodka (caipiroska, trademark registered by Smirnoff), Licor Beirão (known as caipirão), rum (caipiríssima, trademark registered by Bacardi), sake "Caipirinhas" (saquerinha) or wine (caipivinho) are also made. In Cape Verde, caipirinha is also prepared with grog, a strong local rum.

Derivations

There are many derivations of caipirinha in which other spirits are substituted for cachaça. Some include: