Curiosities

CACHAÇA ORIGIN AND LEGENDS

In the early 15th century, around the year 1430, the Portuguese had already dominated the production of sugar. However, it was just by the end of that century that the alembic emerged.

During that time, the Portuguese were already producing the bagaceira, (distilled from grapes wine) while the Scottish were producing whiskey (distilled from malted grains).

Over the following two centuries, the Portuguese conquered the Atlantic. Sugar production was very important because it was a valuable product.

The big sugar mills demanded more expensive equipment, while the small sugarcane farmers dedicated their work to the production of cachaça. At this point, Brazil began to have a fundamental role in the history of the drink, because it was there that this delicacy started conquering the world.

A historic legend says that cachaça arose through an error, that happened when sugar cane slaves were preparing molasses for sugar production. The legend says the slaves, exhausted from their hard work, left the sugarcane juice to be boiled in the pan on the next day. When they returned to work, they realized that the juice had fermented; unwilling to suffer punishment for the incident, they added fresh sugarcane juice to the pan and brought the mixture to boil. According to the anecdote, when boiling the fermented mixture, alcoholic vapor accumulated on the ceiling and began to drip on the slaves, who then called it ‘drips’ (pinga).

The alcoholic distillate also reached the wounds on the skin of the slaves, who felt like burning. They then called it ‘burning water’ (água ardente). The dripping of the drink as it ran down the slaves’ faces hit the mouth, and as they drank the potion they felt happy and relaxed.

Every time they wanted to reproduce that effect, they made the recipe. That is how the cachaça was created.