Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ballard Cachaça Adventure!


So there's a new bar in Ballard! Paratii is a "Brazilian scratch bar".  What does this mean? Delicious craft cocktails and nerdy bartenders with an emphasis on South American spirits and food. Seattle, you have a lot of bars, but I'm pretty sure this is the only one offering over 40 different types of cachaça.  What's Cachaça, you ask? Oh, only the 3rd most consumed spirit in the world. Heard of rum? Well this came first. Yeah, I had no idea either.


Brazilian slaves first began distilling the spirit sometime in the early 1500's using the leftover juice from milling sugar cane. They at first fermented the juice, and later discovered that by then boiling it, a much stronger spirit could be made.  These facts bring me to only one conclusion: So while I'm sure it really sucked to be a slave in Brazil in the 1500's, they were clearly totally awesome dudes. Not only did they invent capoeira, a badass martial arts dance form, they also invented cachaça, a badass liquor that is now the national spirit of Brasil. Not bad.


Important note: the difference between what we call typically rum (from the Caribbean) and cachaça is that Caribbean rum is made from molasses (sugar post-crystallization) while cachaça or Brazilian rum is made from fresh sugar cane juice (pre-crystallization).  Because of this, you will actually find that many cachaças display a sense of terroir, showing different characteristics depending on what region or climate the sugar cane is grown, a fact that totally appeals to the wine nerd in me.


At Paratii, I recently had the chance to taste though a selection of eleven different cachaças, an opportunity that would have been completely wasted on me had I not been guided by our two local experts- barman/cocktail wizard, Micheal Kostin and bar owner/cachaça fanatic, Sam Hassan. Following a standard and much recommended format, we tasted from cheapest to most expensive. I have to admit I had limited expectations, only having tasted fairly cheap, rubbing alcohol-like versions mostly mixed into sweet caipirinhas (more on that later) but what I tasted that night truly gave me a new respect for the sassy Brazilian intoxicant. Here's a bit about each one I tried and a couple I didn't.


Budget Booze: The Low End


Cabana


Made in Sao Paulo, this is the "The vodka of cachaças" as described by Sam and Micheal. Tinny flavor, lack of character, over-distilled. Really just kind of tastes like a cheap vodka.


Sagatiba Pura


Sweet, anise aromas, yeasty finish. Multidistilled. Slightly less offensive than Cabana, but still not anything that I would imbibe straight. Probably a good mixing cachaça.


Sama Brasil


Most offensive off all- potent ethanol aroma and not much else but a lingering burning sensation in my throat. Throw some juice in there and call it a frat party.


Ok I was off to a shaky start, but things quickly improved.

A Step Up: Mid-range Must-Trys







Boca Loca


The most popular cachaça brand on the market. Triple distilled.  Aromas of tropical fruits and fresh herbs. Bright and easy on the palate.


Leblon


Aged 6 months in XO Cognac barrels. Fresh sweet citrus notes with a bitter herb on the finish. Nicely rounded on the palate with underlying hints of caramel and spice.  Brazilian rum made by a Frenchman.


Fazenda Mae de Ouro (Mother of Gold)


From Minas Gerais, the best known region for cachaça.  Vanilla, pepper caramel aromas with underlying citrus and red fruit. Small batch pot distilled and aged one year in oak barrels. I can easily see sipping this neat with a twist.






Novo Fogo Silver (organic)


From Serra do Mar, a coastal town in the south of Brasil.  Aged 6-12 months in steel tanks.  Sweet sugar cane and herbaceous aromas, bright and lively on the palate.  Novo is a super earth friendly and organic distillery- a totally waste-free operation, they reuse every byproduct and dump nothing into the water. Also the bottles are handmade from recycled glass and individually signed and labeled with the batch number. Not too shabby. Oh, and the guy that makes this stuff, "Dr. Cachaça" actually has  PhD in cachaça-making. Who knew that was even a thing?


Novo Fogo Aged


Aged 2 years in small bourbon barrels.  Rich, spicy aromas of toffee, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Yeast and honey on the palate with a silky mouthfeel.  Akin to a nice aged rum.


Top Shelf: The Special Stuff






Rochinha 


Made in Barra Mansa in the interior of Rio de Janeiro.  Fermented with natural yeasts and aged 5 years in bourbon barrels.  Sultry aromas of vanilla and baking spices.  A clean and integrated flavor profile. Particularly bourbony in character with sweet honey notes and smoky, caramely spices. This puppy won a double gold in the San Francisco World Spirit Competition.


12 year Rochinha


Impressive.  Complexity and richness of the 5 year with a lingering mouthfeel, intense vanilla aromas, and a notable peaty finish, much like a fine aged Scotch. Aged in French oak barrels. Only 1,200 bottles make it to the U.S. every year and Sam's got it.


Armazem Vieira Esmeralda 


Aged 4 years in Brazilian "Aririba" barrels and blended using a Solera system.  Produced in Santa Catarina, on the island of Florianopolis in the South of Brazil.  Tastes very much like a coastal spirit- clean and herbaceous, almost salty on the palate with fresh citrus aromas. This one rated #2 among hundreds of artisan producers in none other than Brazilian Playboy, a publication which I can only imagine makes U.S. Playboy look like an Archie comic.


Extra Special: I didn't get to taste these, but Sam did let me hold the bottles for a couple seconds.


Anisio Santiago "the best cachaça in the world"


Also from Minas Gerais, Anisio Santiago is super rare and much sought-after, one of the gems of Sam's collection at Paratii.  Aged 5 years in balsam barrels, only 8,000 bottles are produced per year and it is the most expensive cachaça in Brazil today. Sam will be offering it at around $200 a shot. 


Sagatiba Preciosa


Also extremely rare, Preciosa comes from a random discovery of several barrels of cachaça that had been left to age in 19th century French Limousine oak barrels for 23 years in an abandoned warehouse at an old sugarcane mill.  The Sagatiba Master Distiller that found the barrels filtered and purified them, producing only 3,000 bottles in all. It's said to be like no other cachaça in the world and snagged a healthy 96/100 points from Chicago's Beverage Testing Institute, making it the highest rated cachaça in the world. You can taste it at Paratii for a mere $250 a shot, which is not bad, considering a few bottles sold for about $2,500 at Christie's.



In all, I must conclude that cachaça tasting is A. fun and B. totally delicious. And at Paratii, you're in good hands- these guys can tell you pretty much everything you've ever wanted to know about cachaça and a little bit more. The last few that I tasted were perfectly lovely served neat and sipped slowly, but to experience the spirit in a very traditional manner, you've gotta try Brazil's national cocktail, the Caipirinha.  Make them on a sunny day, sit out on the patio, and pretend you're in Rio on the beach.  

Classic Caipirinha Recipe

3 thinly sliced key limes
2-3 tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
2 ounces of cachaça (try Leblon or Novo Fogo Silver)

Muddle limes and sugar, add booze, stir to dissolve sugar, add cracked ice, consume heartily.


A BIG THANK YOU to Michael and Sam for the awesome education and for bringing something totally new to Seattle!! GO! Go to Paratii and see for yourselves!

1 comment:

  1. We actually use regular limes, 1/2 a lime in wedges, white removed, muddled with skin on, 1 tbsp of sugar, 2 oz of good silver cachaça and ice

    Sam

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