Cachaça

Cachaça is the most popular distilled spirit in Brazil and the third most consumed distilled spirit in the world. Cachaça differs from traditional rum in that it is made from sugarcane juice whereas rum is made from molasses.

Cachaça was invented by the first Portuguese settlers of Brazil, in the region around the town of São Vicente, sometime between 1532 and 1548. Workers at local sugar mills first discovered that the sugarcane juice (garapa), cooked and left standing, would "sour" (ferment) and turn into a mild alcoholic beverage. The product, disparagingly named cagaça, was consumed by slaves as a cheap substitute for the Indians' cauim. Soon someone had the idea of distilling it, and thus cachaça was born.
Cachaça distilleries multiplied through colonial Brazil during the 16th and 17th centuries. Portugal eventually took notice and, in order to protect the market for Portuguese-made grappa (bagaceira), tried several times to outlaw the manufacture and consumption of the new spirit. In 1756, after a century of failure to suppress it, the Crown gave up and levied a tax on cachaça. This tax brought substantial revenue to the Treasury, and contributed to the reconstruction following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami.

Currently there are more than 4,000 different brands of cachaça available in Brazil. Early in its history it was consumed mainly by Africans, peasants, and members of the lower class. As is often the case, elitists considered it a low drink, unfit for exclusivist bars and tables. However, the finer points of the product gained wider and wider appreciation, and it is now a very popular drink, considered by many to be in the same class as whiskey and wine. In the country's largest cities there are many bars specialized in cachaça, called cachaçarias, offering hundreds of different brands, some of them very expensive. The most prized brands are produced in Minas Gerais and São Paulo.