"Cachaça" - History and Market Information

"Pinga" is the name of the traditional alcoholic component of the Brazilian national drink "caipirinha". Caipirinha (pronounced KIGHPEEREENYA) is a concoction of crushed lime (peel included), sugar, and plenty of crushed ice, topped with "pinga". Pinga is a strong liquor distilled from sugar cane. This is a widely known (especially in U.S. and European markets) fast moving product within this market segment; it is currently exported to international markets in North America, Europe, Asia and some parts of Africa. Brazil provides the best quality with the lowest price in the world, as it is one of the biggest producers of sugar cane.

In Brazil, the land of social people and happiness, it is also one of the main producers of sugar cane. The average consumption, considering the legal industries set in the country is 1 billion liters a year or 15 billion shots, or 1.25 billion a month, 41.6 million a day and 1.73 million an hour. But there is much more. The great volume of handmade or clandestine cachaça produced and sold, make it difficult to precise the numbers.

Why such a good consumption of cachaça?
The answer is because of it’s natural origin and popularity. It is claimed to be a friend and there is always a good reason to sip it, to frighten the cold or hot weather away, to celebrate and set friendship. People even say if you add to it some medical herbs it can cure everything from flu to tumor.

With so much cachaça available on the market it was not a surprise that the national beverage (appeared more than four hundred years ago as a waste of sugar cane) had become popular and conquered even appreciators from the high society.

After being left aside mainly by the middle class because they thought it was not elegant to drink cachaça, it has been gaining a high status as a refined beverage. One example of that is an article recently published by the Newsweek magazine in which it is said that caipirinha may replace marguerita in people's preference very soon.

People who appreciate cachaça are not sure if it was a God's or devil's creation. They say it could be that when Jesus was walking around the world once He rested by a sugar cane plantation where the leaves provided Him with shadow and He could drink the juice from the sugar cane. When He left He blessed the plant and from it we would have sugar and rapadura (sugar cane candy). The devil that was near there saw Jesus and thought it was a nice place and decided to take a nap, but the leaves scratched him and he cursed, and from the plant we would have cachaça. But people do not agree that is a devil's thing.

When Jânio Quadros was the president of Brazil someone wrote a poetry in which it was claimed that everyone from the priest to the president drank cachaça. The president himself never denied his preference for the Brazilian beverage and it is believed he once said; 'I drink because it is liquid if it is solid I eat it'. In other words, there is no way, but drinking.

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