Caipirinha

The Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail — a short, rustic drink built from cachaça, a Brazilian spirit distilled from fresh sugarcane juice, with a whole lime cut into wedges and muddled together with white sugar and served over ice in a heavy tumbler. It is the simplest kind of cocktail, made and drunk in the same glass, with nothing to balance the spirit but the lime and sugar crushed into it. The result is bracing and refreshing: sharp, tart lime and the green, grassy, faintly funky character of cachaça, cut and rounded by just enough sugar. It is a fixture of Brazilian bars and beaches and one of the most recognised cocktails in the world.