Anthony Bourdain Swore This Drink Was Perfect For Any Occasion

Anthony Bourdain was, among countless other roles, a Professional Enjoyer. The New York City-based chef famously loved eating and drinking international delicacies from across the globe. And during a visit to Brazil, the writer-slash-TV-personality was all about caipirinhas, a cocktail based on a unique Brazilian liquor.

In an episode of his hit CNN series "Parts Unknown," Bourdain ordered a caipirinha from "the caipirinha man," a push-cart bartender who sweeps the shorelines of Brazil and is lauded by the host as an "indispensable icon of Brazilian beach culture." In fact, the caipirinha is actually the national drink of Brazil, and cachaça, the liquor it's made with, is the country's national spirit.

If you've never tried one before, the caipirinha is a lime-based mixed drink not dissimilar to a muddled daiquiri, but with a much different taste thanks to its base spirit. Cachaça, which Bourdain called "the magic ingredient," is a liquor made from distilled sugarcane, not to be confused with rum. Cachaça is distilled from fermented sugarcane juice, while rum is typically made from distilled molasses, a byproduct of sugarcane processing. Where rum is sweet, cachaça tastes funky, grassy, and vegetal, giving the caipirinha a more dimensional, mature profile compared to other tropical drinks from neighboring regions (although you can totally drink cachaça straight, for the record). In the episode, Bourdain lauded the caipirinha as "a utility beverage good for any time of day, or any social occasion."

To make a caipirinha, muddle a wedged lime with sugar or simple syrup in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Sugar is preferable to simple syrup here, as the increased friction of the granules helps extract maximum juice from the lime. A splash of water, more lime juice, or crushed ice might be added during this step for increased dilution. Small ice cubes or cracked ice are more popular in South America, whereas crushed ice is more commonly found in caipirinhas made in Europe and North America. 

Then, the muddled fruit is transferred to the serving glass, where it is topped with cachaça, stirred to combine, garnished with a lime wheel, and served in a highball glass or double rocks glass. Caipirinhas clock in around 21.39% to 30% ABV, a hefty punch that goes down grassy-smooth.

There is some debate around whether the caipirinha should be shaken or stirred. Bourdain belonged to the shaken camp. As he prescribed in "Parts Unknown," "Shaken, not stirred, and you've got yourself one of the world's truly great cocktails." In this assembly, the cachaça would be added straight into the shaker with the muddled fruit and sugar, wet shaken, then poured (unstrained) into a serving glass. In the stirred version, it's possible to expedite the process and bypass using a shaker altogether, muddling the lime in the bottom of the serving glass and building the drink on top.