How to Make a Caipirinha Cocktail

(mellow techno beat)

Hi, this is Eben Freeman at Tailor Restaurant

down in Soho.

We're going to talk a bit about caipirinha.

First thing you need is a muddling stick.

You want something without any paint or varnish on it

that's gonna come off in your drink.

Something with a little heft to it I think

is important also.

This is a really simple drink to make because you

really don't need a lot of equipment.

You really just need a muddler.

In a pinch you could actually use the dull end of a spoon,

a wooden spoon, to do this with.

The only other thing you need, really, is the spirits,

the fruit, the sugar and the glass.

The sugar is actually important.

I personally like to use turbinado sugar when making

caipirinhas, because the rough crystals help to break up

the fibers in the flesh of the lime a little bit better.

So, I start out with just a heaping teaspoon

of turbinado sugar, and just to break that down slightly,

I'm just gonna put a little bit of lemon juice in there,

and swirl it around a little so it's still rough,

but it's going to dissolve as I make the cocktail.

Another variation I'm gonna use is actually,

instead of using limes, I'm gonna use kumquats.

All I do is slice them in half and then I take a paring

knife and just pick the little seeds out of them.

Take about six whole pieces, which is about 10 or 12

of these caipirinha halves and then take your muddler,

you can use either end, really,

both of them will do the job.

It's important to watch what you're doing,

make sure you depress all of those kumquats.

If you were doing a traditional caipirinha with limes

the same rule applies.

The whole beauty of it is that you're getting a lot of

the oils out of the skins, that's what really makes

a caipirinha, so don't just push down on it,

you really wanna press it hard and make sure

that you get all the different pieces in there

to extract the juice and the oils, both.

Next we're going to add two ounces of Cachaça.

Then we're gonna fill our glass with ice.

If you have an 18 ounce cheater tin that happens to fit

on your rocks glass the way I do, it's actually a neat

little trick to be able to just set it on there

and then shake it a little bit so that you're sure

that it's well mixed.

The final touch that we do here at Tailor is we put

a soy caramel that the chef makes.

This is simply sugar that's melted down with some

soy sauce set in it.

You get a great salty sweetness to it and again,

there's sort of a cultural allegiance here

between the soy sauce and the kumquat.

Again, a very easy drink to make, all you need

is a stick and a glass, some booze and some fruit,

little bit of sugar.