I Can Stretch Anything Into a Post

Weird how everyone I talk to has a story about their first caipirinha.

Mine, as I said, is that I first had one at a party in a Berlin apartment. We'd been tearing through the former Easter Germany for about a week and had been guests of some students at some university or another that I can't quite remember. They gave us the number of someone to call when we were in Berlin and the night we rolled in and got settled in the hostel, we gave them a ring. They were throwing this huge party in an amazing suite. Professional bartender, bottles of beer lining the walls, freaky German Europop blaring from the speakers, the works. One of the people on the trip with me was originally a Brazilian and for the past week he'd been on a fruitless quest to get a caipirinha. I take it he'd heard they were really popular over there but in former Communist farm country and the rural pubs we'd been stopping at, I guess not. He saw the bar, walked up, asked for a caipirinha and the bartender's eyes lit up. I was at his elbow, where I was for a lot of that trip because, you know, the motherfucker was the sort of crazy I like to be around. At that point in my life, though, I hadn't done much drinking (Still haven't when you get right down to it.) so I had no idea what to order when the options got beyond Bud and Bud Lite. So, he ordered one for me, too, and told me I'd love it.

In comparison to some that I've ordered, that first taste was nothing but a light breeze. And, much to the horror of someone, I've recently been taken with having them with some sweetened condensed milk.

Condensed milk in that drink is really odd, bordering on criminal.

~Clamatius

Clam bake, if you're making them out of vodka, I'd agree with you. Vodka shouldn't taste like anything so you're really tasting the lime and sugar suspended in a ton of chilled alcohol. It should be basically like drinking flavored vodka – clear, crisp, refreshing, with the sugar masking the alcohol. That's the way I like it in the summer when I'm in the mood for a margarita or a lemonade or something.

However, when you get the real stuff[1] (Which is more like rum than anything. They make it a bit differently but it's the same basic idea.) which actually has a taste to blend in it's surprisingly good. I ran out of sugar one day and I usually have some sweetened condensed milk around from baking that I'm trying to use up so I figured what the heck. I'm talking about like a teaspoon of the stuff on the top and then you stir it in like you would with, say, a Thai Iced Tea (which I know normally uses evaporated milk but, again, I'm a bit weird about these things.), so the ribbons of sweetened cream are swirling around the pure liquid. It's like a limey White Russian but...good.

Of course, the best caipirinha I've ever had was in a Carribean, vegan restaurant in Madrid, of all places. And they put soy milk or something in with it and used tangerines instead of lime. Really more of a batida than a caipirinha but that's not what it was on the menu as – it's really not all that uncommon a variation, though. And I guess I've been trying to recreate that. But now that it's winter out, I much prefer the creamy version.


[1] - Cachaca is really rare to find outside of Brazil – I snapped up the bottle when I saw it at a specialty store - it's not exactly something you pick up at the corner liquor store. Except, I take it, in Germany. That's because while they make lots of the stuff only about 1% of gets exported. Most of that goes to the Germans. Go figure.