Austin Texas has a large Brazilian community that explodes one weekend per year at the Palmer Event Center, when they all show up clothed as scantily as possible then proceed to spend the next few hours gyrating wildly eventually ending the evening buck-ass naked and lucky they’re not in handcuffs in the back of a squad car.
It’s called Carnaval and I would not miss it for the world.
If you could distill all the fun all the Austinites have at SXSW, ACL and every UT Longhorn football game down into one pure burst of pleasure you would have Carnaval.
It’s the king of Austin parties.
And it’s also responsible for the first Caipirinha I ever sampled.
The Caipirinha is the national cocktail of Brazil. It’s a simple drink consisting of cachaca {a cousin to rum} sugar and lime juice. I first became aware of this wonderful potion at a Carnaval after-party thrown by a pair of Brazilian sisters a decade or so ago.
It’s been one of my favorite drinks ever since.
Here’s my recipe for the Caipirinha
Ingredients
1/2 lime, cut into 4 pieces
1 t. Turbinado
2 oz. Cachaca
ice
Method
* In shaker, muddle limes with Turbinado
* Add cachaca and ice
* Shake well
* Pour contents of shaker into chilled glass, do not strain
Cheers!
Rum and Cachaca are different beasts. In a nutshell, rum is made from molasses and cachaca is made from sugar cane juice that has been fermented.
