January Drink of the Month: The "Gussied Up" Caipirinha

A few confessions at the start today:

1) Today is February 25 - clearly, we're not in January any more Toto.

Charlie @ the bar - just crawling, not partaking

2) I neglected to take any pictures of this month's drink - so prepare for pictures of cute *almost* one-year-olds on top of my bar instead. Also, I turned my bar into a "sports bar" last month by finally adding a TV (we've had it wired for cable for the last 6 months), so I'll show you that too. I'm pretty happy about it.

3) My drink for the month is based on an excellent drink from Sylvain in New Orleans, by way of Imbibe magazine. However, their drink (the "Rat Race Cocktail") required more work than I was willing to put in this time around. Their drink is superior to the one I'll be writing about, as it uses Rosemary-infused simple syrup instead of plain-jane stuff. I have excuses (Ann doesn't like rosemary, ain't nobody got time for that, etc), but its also safe to say that I've failed you. As a result, I can't call the drink a proper "Rat Race," so I settled for a call-back to what I imagine is the drink's inspiration, the Caipirinha. The folks at Sylvain did some cool stuff to improve on the Brazilian classic, adding soda water and sloe gin (and rosemary). There is a long tradition of calling such cocktails "Improved" versions of the original (see: Improved Genever Cocktail), but I'm feeling old today, so I went for a 50's term and "Gussied it up" instead, since its much fancier.

So, with those disclaimers out of the way, here is our drink for the month! As long-time readers may recall, the Caipirinha (or "Little Hillbilly") is a simple drink made with Cachaça (Brazilian fermented sugar cane juice), lime, and sugar. Cachaça has nice earthy and somewhat vegetal notes that play well with sweetened lime juice. I imagine the inspiration for the "Rat Race" began here. The folks at Sylvain then (possibly) improved on the formula by adding sweetly complex sloe gin and rosemary. The sloe gin plays nicely with all of the ingredients, adding sweetness and berry notes to the earthy Cachaça, I will caution you to only use real sloe gin here, not bottom shelf stuff. Plymoth Sloe Gin is finally widely available again, so treat yourself to a bottle (and enjoy a Sloe Gin Fizz on a warm day, whenever that may be - so cold).

Try this drink at your favorite sports bar.
This is my new personal favorite.

Here is the recipe for my Gussied Up Caipirinha. Note that if you sub out the simple syrup for rosemary simple syrup, that you'll do the folks at Sylvain proud:

In a cocktail shaker, combine the following:
1 oz Cachaça
1 oz Sloe gin
1 oz lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup

Shake over ice, strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with soda water (~1 oz) and serve.

I hope you enjoy your Gussied Up Caipirinha!