Here's How to Make the Perfect Caipirinha

Caipirinha with a lemon slice on the glass rim.

(Image credit: Design by Katja Cho)

published 16 June 16

You can't think of South American cocktails and *not* think of the caipirinha. The lime-y, refreshing drink is a mainstay in Brazil—and is even the national cocktail. (When are we going to get a national cocktail, btw?)

If you're not familiar, now's the time to get acquainted. As one bartender put it: "The caipirinha's kind of like the soccer of the cocktail world, in that everyone else in the entire world knows everything there is to know about it, but America's still kind of like—who is this David Beckham guy?"

So what better way to 1) learn more about the cocktail 2) cheers to summer and 3) celebrate the start of the Olympic Games in August than by making your own?

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In essence, it's just three ingredients: cachaça (the national liquor of Brazil and obviously the most popular), sugar, and lime. Ready to make the most delicious cocktail, ever? Here you go:

Ingredients:

2 oz Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça (opens in new tab) or Novo Fogo Barrel-Aged Cachaça (opens in new tab) (or similar)

1/2 lime

1 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Remove the white pith from the lime and discard it. Cut the remaining lime in slices; toss them into the glass. Muddle them with sugar in the glass. Fill the glass with ice. Add cachaça and pour everything into a shaker. Give it a go, and then pour everything (including the ice) back into the same glass.

Learn more about the cocktail here, thanks to NovoFogo:

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Samantha Leal

Samantha Leal is the Deputy Editor at Well+Good, where she spends most of her day thinking of new ideas across platforms, bringing on new writers, overseeing the day-to-day of the website, and working with the awesome team to produce the best stories and packages. Before W+G, she was the Senior Web Editor for Marie Claire and the Deputy Editor for Latina.com, with bylines all over the internet. Graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a minor in African history, she’s written everything from travel guides to political op-eds to wine explainers (currently enrolled in the WSET program) to celebrity profiles. Find her online pretty much everywhere @samanthajoleal.