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It seems like almost every country has a liquor in which the locals place their national pride. Italians have grappa. For the French, there’s marc. And for Brazilians, it’s cachaça: a white or gold spirit made from distilled sugar-cane juices, and which is the main ingredient for the country’s national cocktail, the “caipirinha.”
Cachaça (pronounced ka-SHAH-sah) is produced in mass quantities — roughly 1.3 billion liters a year. In Brazil it’s about as common as table wine, though it’s a bit harder to define.
Some people label cachaça a “brandy,” thanks to a smooth profile and stinging finish that evoke Peruvian pisco. But actually “[it’s] much closer to rum,” says Michele Savoia, chef-owner of the South Side’s Dish Osteria and Bar, which has stocked the stuff since opening in 2000.
Although the clear, semi-sweet cachaça burns much less than rum, Savoia is right. Both spirits originate from sugar cane: Cachaça producers ferment and distill only untouched sugar-cane juices, whereas most rum makers reduce those juices to molasses and then ferment/distill.
Savoia first encountered the spirit 12 years ago, while working at a Manhattan restaurant owned by Brazilians. At gatherings, there were copious amounts of “caipirinha” — lime, sugar, ice and cachaça. So when he opened Dish, Savoia made caipirinhas a drink staple. Even now, DISH is the only place in the city besides Seviche to offer the traditional Brazilian libation on a regular basis.
“It’s one of those drinks where you make one, then everyone sees it and says, ‘I want that,'” says Dish bartender RaeLynn Harshman.
The key to a caipirinha (“kai-pee-REEN-ya”) is elbow grease, she says. At Dish, they muddle two teaspoons of sugar with four or five lime wedges (depending on size) to form a sweet citrus paste, and then shake the mixture with ice and 2 oz. Pitu Cachaça (available at select specialty stores for $13.99 per 750-milliliter bottle). The unstrained, subtly sweet drink is refreshing and deceptively strong. And at $7, its one of the best cocktail deals you’re likely to find in Pittsburgh.
This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2011.
No surprise that the bar at “Dish” reflects the creativity of the menu and the establishment’s owners. There’s good reason that it continues to rank among Pittsburgh’s finest restaurants. And the service at the bar is top flight, too.