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Caipirinha

Caipirinha

ClassicIBA Official

Cachaça, lime, and sugar. Brazil in a glass.

ClassicSummerRefreshingCitrusy
3 minEasyBalanced

Bright, tart, and rustic. Fresh lime — juice and fragrant peel oils both — leads hard, sugar rounds the edge, and cachaça brings a grassy, funky warmth you won't find in rum. Unpolished in the best way: vivid, sharp, and alive.

Ingredients

  • 2 oz Cachaça
  • 1 Lime
  • 2 tsp Sugar
  • Lime wheel · optional garnish

Method

  1. 1

    Cut the lime into wedges and add to a rocks glass with the sugar.

  2. 2

    Muddle firmly to release the juice and the oils from the peel.

  3. 3

    Fill the glass with ice and pour in the cachaça.

  4. 4

    Stir well and garnish with a lime wheel.

The Story

The Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, built on cachaça — a spirit distilled straight from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses, which gives it a grassy, funky character all its own. Its name roughly means "little country drink," and it began as a rural remedy before becoming the taste of Brazilian summer. Muddling the whole lime, peel and all, is the secret: the oils are as important as the juice.

Glass · Rocks glassGarnish · Lime wheel

Recipe card

The whole recipe in one shareable image.

Caipirinha recipe infographic