Ingredients
Drink
- 1ripe Tahiti lime, about 90 g
- 2 tspcaster sugar, about 15 g
- 60 mlcachaça branca
- Cracked ice, to fill
Equipment
- 1heavy rocks glass of about 300 ml
- 1wooden muddler (pilão)
- 1barspoon
Directions
- Roll the lime hard on the counter to break the juice sacs, then top and tail it.
- Halve it lengthwise and cut out the white pith core running down the centre of each half — this is the bitter part, and removing it is the difference between a good caipirinha and a harsh one.
- Cut each half into four wedges and drop all eight into the rocks glass.
- Add the sugar directly on top of the fruit. Sugar, not syrup: the crystals abrade the peel as you muddle and pull the oils out.
- Press with the muddler eight or ten times, straight down and with a slight twist. Press, do not grind — you want juice and peel oil, not shredded pith.
- Fill the glass to the rim with cracked ice, ideally coarse chunks rather than cubes so it chills fast without watering the drink down.
- Pour over the cachaça, then stir from the bottom up with a barspoon for about 10 seconds until the outside of the glass frosts and the sugar has fully dissolved.
- Serve immediately with the muddled fruit still in the glass and no garnish; the lime wedges are the garnish.
Technique
- Made with vodka it becomes a caipiroska, with sake a sakerinha. The name belongs only to the cachaça version, and Brazilian law even defines the drink’s composition.
- Never shake a caipirinha. Shaking pulverises the peel and turns the drink bitter within minutes.
- Sweetness is adjusted to the fruit, not to a recipe. Sour winter limes may need three teaspoons; very ripe ones only one and a half.
Substitutions
- Tahiti limes are standard in Brazil, but small aromatic key limes give a more perfumed drink — use two, and cut the sugar slightly.
- Demerara sugar works and adds a light molasses note, though it will not dissolve as cleanly.
Variations
- Caipirinha de maracujá muddles passion fruit pulp in with the lime, a bar standard across Brazil.
- Northeastern bars make it with cajá or cashew fruit when in season.
History
Its name comes from caipira, a Brazilian term for someone from the rural countryside, and the drink itself, cachaça, lime and sugar muddled together over ice, grew out of rural Brazilian sugarcane-growing regions where cachaça, a spirit distilled directly from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses, has been produced since at least the 1500s, not long after the Portuguese introduced sugarcane cultivation to Brazil. One folk account claims the drink, or a very similar mixture, began as a home remedy against Spanish flu during the 1918 pandemic, using lime, garlic and honey rather than sugar, though this origin story is not well documented and the cocktail as known today, without the garlic, is the version that became Brazil’s national drink.
Frequently asked questions
What is Caipirinha?
Caipirinha is a cocktail from Brazil: cachaça muddled with lime and sugar over ice. Its name comes from caipira, a Brazilian term for someone from the rural countryside, and the drink itself, cachaça, lime and sugar muddled together over ice, grew out of rural Brazilian sugarcane-growing regions where cachaça, a spirit distilled directly from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses, has been produced since at least the 1500s, not long after the Portuguese introduced sugarcane cultivation to Brazil. One folk account claims the drink, or a very similar mixture, began as a home remedy against Spanish flu during the 1918 pandemic, using lime, garlic and honey rather than sugar, though this origin story is not well documented and the cocktail as known today, without the garlic, is the version that became Brazil’s national drink.
How long does Caipirinha take to make?
Caipirinha takes 4 min of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes 1 drink. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Caipirinha?
Yes, within limits. Tahiti limes are standard in Brazil, but small aromatic key limes give a more perfumed drink — use two, and cut the sugar slightly. Demerara sugar works and adds a light molasses note, though it will not dissolve as cleanly.
What is the most important thing to get right in Caipirinha?
Halve it lengthwise and cut out the white pith core running down the centre of each half — this is the bitter part, and removing it is the difference between a good caipirinha and a harsh one.
