Caipirinha

The caipirinha comes from Brazil. According to the trade guide Difford's Guide, the name means roughly 'girl from the countryside' and the cocktail is said to originate from the countryside of the state of São Paulo. No fixed inventor or fixed year is known.

There are various traditions about its origin, including a story that the name spread via the port city of Santos. None of these is established history. What is on record is in Brazilian law: there the caipirinha is defined as a drink of cachaça, lime and sugar.

Cachaça is a sugar cane brandy made in Brazil. Brazilian law, decree 12,709 of 2025, stipulates that cachaça has an alcohol content of 38 to 48 percent, measured at 20 degrees. Cachaça de alambique is distilled from fermented sugar cane juice in copper stills.

The same decree also describes the caipirinha itself, as a typically Brazilian drink made with cachaça, lime and sugar, with an alcohol percentage of 15 to 36 percent. The difference from rum lies mainly in the raw material: cachaça comes from fresh sugar cane juice. For the classic caipirinha, Difford's Guide uses an unaged cachaça chilled in the freezer.

A caipiroska is a caipirinha with vodka instead of cachaça. The IBA lists this as an official variation, alongside the caipirissima with rum and the caipirão with the Portuguese Licor Beirão. Lime, sugar, ice and the preparation in the glass stay the same. Difford's Guide also mentions brown sugar or sugar syrup as an alternative to white sugar.

A mojito is a different cocktail. According to the IBA it consists of 45 ml white Cuban rum, 20 ml lime juice, 6 sprigs of mint, 2 teaspoons of cane sugar and soda water. For the caipirinha you muddle whole lime wedges with sugar and no soft drink is added. The mojito gets mint and a slice of lime as garnish, the caipirinha according to the IBA no garnish.

You make an alcohol-free caipirinha with the same base of lime, sugar and ice, but without cachaça. Muddle a lime in small wedges with 4 teaspoons of white cane sugar in a double old fashioned glass, so that the juice is released and the sugar dissolves.

Fill the glass with crushed ice. Instead of 60 ml cachaça, pour in sparkling water or ginger ale, or an alcohol-free distillate. Stir briefly and add a stirrer. The preparation is otherwise the same as the regular version, so the proportions of lime and sugar stay the same.

The shop stocks 5 cachaças. Among them are Cachaça 51, Ypioca Prata Cachaca, Ypioca Cachaca Reserva Carvalho, Cachaça Chapéu de Palha Gold and Cachaca Velho Berreiro. Each of these bottles can serve as the base for the IBA recipe with 60 ml cachaça.

Lime and cane sugar you add yourself. For the classic version Difford's Guide uses an unaged cachaça, chilled in the freezer. Not sure which bottle suits your caipirinha? Just call or drop by ’t Bockje at Brink 2 in Bathmen.

The shop is at Brink 2 in Bathmen. Open Tuesday to Friday from 09.00 to 18.00 and Saturday from 09.00 to 17.00. For advice, call 0570 541 278 or email info@bockje.nl.