POUR
The rise of Cachaça
The national drink of Brazil is finding a home in the United States.
BY MARK SPIVAK
Cachaça is the national drink of Brazil. Nearly 1.5 billion liters are produced each year, making it the third most popular spirit in the world.
Like some types of rum, cachaça is distilled from sugar cane, and is available in both light and gold versions. Lighter colored cachaça is mass-produced in column stills, is bottled without aging, and primarily is used in cocktails. The amber variety is made in small pot stills, like Cognac, and aged in various types of wood barrels before release. This type of artisan cachaça has become enormously popular in the United States over the past few years.
“I wanted to introduce a truly premium cachaça to this country, one that reflected the Brazilian heritage in the right way,” says Matti Anttila, founder and owner of Cabana Cachaça. Anttila worked in Brazil after college and discovered the spirit. When he returned to the United States and couldn’t find it, he decided to create his own. “I found a distillery that was small, innovative and had great quality control. We spent some time refining the formula, and launched the brand in June 2006,” he says.
A single-estate cachaça, Cabana is double distilled and aged for nine months in native Brazilian barrels. The result is a spirit that is rounder and smoother on the palate than most, with a refined taste profile and light citrus notes. It is typical of the small-batch cachaças that Americans have begun to find so intriguing.
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