Where to Get Caipirinhas, The "It" Drink of the Summer

Not long ago in a taxi on my way to SFO, I found myself making conversation with my Brazilian cab driver. Since my knowledge of Brazil doesn’t extend much past cachaça—Brazil’s version of rum, which is used to make its national cocktail, the caipirinha—we talked drinking, Brazilian-style, which seems to be all the rage right now.

The caipirinha caught on here in the states a few years ago and has quickly risen to become the new “it” drink. On the nights that I bartend at Cantina, it rivals the margarita in popularity. A simple mixture of cachaça, sugar and lime, the caipirinha, in many ways, is a Brazilian margarita, but with a twist. Instead of squeezing limes into the mix, quarters of whole lime are muddled with coarse sugar to extract not just the juice, but a little of the sharp oils from the skins, making a complex, yet simple, drink.

Bolstering the case for the caipirinha’s ascendancy has been the flood of new cachaças into the market over the last few years. New brands like Boca Loca, Sagatiba, Leblon, Weber Haus and Cabana (the last two of which both won double-golds at the SF World Spirits Competition this year), have made commonplace what used to be an obscure, hard-to-find spirit.

My cab driver waxed enthusiastic about the variety of caipirinhas they make in Brazil. I asked if they were only made with limes, and he shouted over his shoulder, “Hell, no! We make them with whatever fruit is around—strawberries, kiwis, guavas, everything.”

I consulted some local bartenders, including Duggan McDonnell of Cantina and Steven Liles of Boulevard, who had recently flown to Brazil to explore cachaça distilleries and confirmed what the taxi driver had said—with fair warning. “It’s just that the caipirinhas in Brazil aren’t that good,” says Liles. It seems that the Brazilian idea of a balanced cocktail is one that’s painfully sweet.

But leave it to the bars in SF to put their twist on the classic drink—hold some of the sugar. Bossa Nova in SoMa does fresh-fruit versions (strawberry, cucumber, mango), as well as ones using house-infused cachaças (pineapple-ginger, blood orange-tangerine). Destino on Market Street likewise mixes it up with passion fruit and mango. But Cantina really shakes it up, muddling lime with mango and adding a little cardamom syrup for a multiethnic Indian-Brazilian-Californian touch.