Cachaça, a foul-tasting sugarcane based spirit, may be the best reason yet to go to war with Brazil. I have had homemade moonshine made from cat barf that did less damage to my psyche (and liver).
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Surely there is more than one kind — might you have acquired a bottle of the lower end variety? It’s really just vodka made from sugarcane, so surely filtering would improve it. Yes? Perhaps it’s worth breaking out a Gray Kangaroo.
I got Pitu, which I was assured is the less nasty of the two commonly available Cachaças available in PA. I’m told there are many artesianal cachaças that are better. I’m certainly willing to believe it, but next time it’s going to have to be on someone else’s dollar.
What did you mix it with? Or.. how did you drink it? I have a bottle, and when I opened it to smell it the odor of napalm seemed to fill the air. It scared me.
I tried some straight, and it was sort of like drinking formaldehyde. I don’t recommend it.
To be completely fair, it worked better when I used it to make a caipirinha. But then, even kerosene tastes “better” if you mix it with lime juice and sugar. No thanks: I’ll stick to daiquiris and margaritas.
LOL I had a similar reaction when I first tried cachaca and no, even in a caipirinha bad cachaca can’t be covered up by enough lime and sugar (in my opinion). So I went to Brazil, did lots of research and now I strongly feel that I now bring in to the US one of the very best cachacas.
The former head mixologist over at Amada in Philly, Katie Loeb, tried Cachaca Fazenda Mae De Ouro, loved it and did everything she could to get it into PA. (A tough state for spirits). While my “distributor” there doesn’t really push it, it is now a special order item: SLO number 054497 CACHACA FAZENDA MAE DE OURO $25.59 1.0 L.
There’s a side by side comparison of 51, Pitu and Mae De Ouro posted here:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=47094&st=120
Also there’s a review of MdO on Liquorsnob here:
http://www.liquorsnob.com/archives/2006/07/fazenda_mae_de_ouro_cachaca_review.php
I hope that my product will help to change your mind about cachaca, give it another go, you’ll be pleased with the caipirinha you make with it.
Regards,
Cachaca Dave
Cachaca Fazenda Mae De Ouro
http://www.caipirinha.us
And Peter, if you don’t like it – save your reciept. I’ll give you a refund.
-Dave
Cachaca has one purpose; to make a Caiprinha. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha
Dave,
I will take you up on this challenge. Just as soon as I finish writing an article about how much it irritates me that I can’t place SLOs on the PaLCB’s web site.
Thanks for the offer. Perhaps we’ll see if we can find some Alert Readers to form a tasting panel.
-Peter
LOL Sometime I should post a picture of the NY Beverage Media (lists 90% of the products sold here in fine print) versus the PA Beverage Media (lists everything sold in your state). NY’s is about an inch and a half thick, PA’s is less than a quarter inch thick.
I recommend finding out what they’re using in the caipirinhas at Green Forest, and buying that.
(I have no problem with Pitu for mixing caiprinhas at home, but it never would have occurred to me to try it straight.)
Is Green Forest serving liquor again? I went there last year, and they (temporarily?) had no liquor license and appeared to be solely BYOB.
It was kinda disappointing, ’cause I used to like their sangria and caipirinhas a lot.
Green Forest still has no liquor license.
I was amused by the Grey Kangaroo link posted by Cynthia. They demonstrate using the device to filter Georgia Moon corn whiskey, a vile spirit for which I have a special place in my heart. You see, it is one of two ingredients in a drink I like to call the Brown Paper Bag. If you mix it (in standard whiskey and cola proportions) with Dr. Pepper, the resulting cocktail tastes exactly like licking a brown paper grocery bag.
There is a reason I’ve had the same jar of the stuff for almost a decade now, complete with Mr. Yuk sticker on the lid.
Knowing almost nothing about cachaca, I claim that your experiment is probably tantamount to declaring tequila undrinkable after one shot of Cuervo.
As a brazilian, I would say Pitú is one of the worst cachaças in existence. Undrinkable, nastier than gasoline. Try a Piragibana.
Pretty please, can I be on the Tasting Panel?
LOL take ZG’s word for it and pass the Cuervo instead.
The problem I’m having in PA is that my “distributor” (read: the people that are supposed to be marketing it in your state) just isn’t pushing it. Why? We’ll I suspect that their management wants them to sell the “other” brand that they carry (not Pitu). Which ounce for ounce is MORE expensive than Mae De Ouro. ):