Cachaça
Brazil's cane spirit: distilled from fresh sugarcane juice — not molasses — which gives it a grassy, vibrant character all its own. Ingredients: freshly pressed sugarcane juice, water, yeast; aged styles rest in barrels of Brazilian woods like amburana, balsam and jequitibá, as well as oak. Method: 1) Ferment the fresh cane juice within hours of pressing. 2) Distill — in copper alembic stills for artisanal cachaça (the pride of Minas Gerais), or in columns for lighter styles. 3) Serve unaged cachaça ice-cold in shots with lime, or sip aged expressions neat like fine rum. The experience: green, tropical and alive — fresh cane, banana leaf, white pepper; aged versions turn honeyed and spiced. History: cachaça has been made in Brazil since the 1500s, making it one of the oldest spirits of the Americas; today it stands among the most consumed spirits on Earth, most of it joyfully drunk at home.