Too often thought of as just Brazilian rum, cachaça is actually more similar to rhum agricole and always made from the fresh-pressed juice of sugarcane, rather than molasses. Finally, thanks to bars like New York City’s Lullaby, the spirit is getting its due as a cocktail base. The Cachaça Drink from Lullaby highlights all of the liquor’s best qualities.
Lullaby founder Harrison Snow started thinking about making cachaça cocktails since he first tried the Brazilian liquor: “The first cachaca I had ever tried was begging to be put into a stirred cocktail.” Check out the recipe below to see how he reinvigorated the boozy brown cocktail with:
Bar Name:
Lullaby
Bartender:
Harrison Snow
Cocktail Name:
The Cachaça Drink
Type of cocktail:
Stirred/spirit forward
Inspiration:
It’s really inspired by the main spirit – Avua Amburana Cachaca, a small-batch cachaca aged in rare Amburana wood casks (a wood native to South America). The first cachaca I had ever tried was begging to be put into a stirred cocktail.
What make it unique:
The fact that it’s stirred and served up. You don’t see a lot of cocktails of this style highlighting Cachaca as the main spirit.
Why does it represent the bar?:
Each bar innovates in their own way. At Lullaby we take a rather low-tech approach to many of our cocktails and instead lean on obscure and fascinating spirits presented in uncommon preparations to create a new drinking experience for our guests. When presented, it looks like pretty much any other stirred, boozy, brown cocktail you’ve had a hundred times before, but I can assure you it’s unlike any other Cachaca drink you’ve ever had.
Ingredients and measurements:
- dsh Dr. Adam’s Orinoco bitters
- 4 dshs Svol aquavit
- .75 oz Cocchi Torino sweet vermouth
- .25 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
- .5 tsp Benedictine
- .50 oz Hine VSOP cognac
- 1 oz Avua Amburana cachaça
- 3 drops saline solution
Directions:
Stir & strain into a Nick & Nora glass
Glassware:
Nick & Nora glass
Garnish:
3 skewered Membrillo cubes