Caipirinha in a rocks glass with muddled lime wedges over crushed ice, A&A watercolor.

Cocktail· Cachaça

Caipirinha

The Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, a built drink made with cachaça, fresh lime, and sugar, served in a rocks glass over crushed ice. The lime is muddled with the sugar to release both juice and oils into the drink.

4 min EasyRocksBuilt

Ingredients

  • 2 oz cachaça
  • 1 lime, cut into wedges
  • 2 tsp sugar (or 0.5 oz simple syrup)

Method

  1. Cut a lime into wedges and add to a rocks glass with sugar.
  2. Muddle firmly until the sugar dissolves and the lime oils are released.
  3. Add cachaça and fill the glass with crushed ice.
  4. Stir briefly to combine.

Garnish

None traditionally. The muddled lime is the garnish.

Pro tip

Sugar in the raw works better than refined sugar because the larger crystals act as an abrasive against the lime peel and pull more oil out.

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