The caipirinha is an easy to make cocktail made with just three ingredients: cachaça (cane liquor), sugar, and lime. Indulge with caution. Brazil’s national drink, a Latin American classic, packs a punch. We’ve modified it a touch, adding more lime and sugar to temper the liquor, but feel free to tweak to your desire.
☞ Contents
Caipirinha
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from 1 large lime) or less to taste
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 ounces cane liquor (cachaça) or less to taste
- 1 cup crushed ice cubes
- 1 lime wheel for garnish
Directions
- Pour the lime juice into a cocktail shaker and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve.
- Pour in the cachaça and crushed ice. Shake well.
- Empty the contents of the shaker into a martini glass and garnish with the lime.
Notes
Pineapple Caipirinha
For a slightly more tropical spin on the caipirinha, swap 1 teaspoon pineapple juice for 1 teaspoon of sugar.Show Nutrition
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We’d love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
The sum of these few ingredients produces a nice drink that you can enjoy while sipping and swirling. In fact, as the fresh pineapple swirls in the drink and the ice melts a bit, the drink becomes more enjoyable, so be sure and stir it all well.
I used a relatively young Cachaça (Ypióca Brasilizar Cachaça Prata Classica, aged one year) and as this was a new flavor for me. Initially it was more startling, but had a necessary edge. To confirm that, I also tried a version with a white rum I had on hand, with longer aging in oak (Flor de Caña) but found that it was not as interesting as the Cachaça.
I served this in a rounded, stemless glass and found it went down all too easily, so I was glad I had split it between two of us although one would have been lovely all to myself.
Originally published June 27, 2019
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If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Jean Carrillo
This drink knocks your socks off! We did 5 rounds of testing over 2 days to decide how we liked it best. The way it’s written it’s really good, though a bit tart for our taste.
The addition of just 1 teaspoon of fresh pineapple juice balanced the flavors out made it a “wow” for us. We also preferred the drink shaken vice stirred.
We’ve decided that this will be our summer drink this year!