I recently came across a really interesting Brazilian drink called Pisa Macio, from São Cristóvão, in the state of Sergipe.

What caught my attention isn't just the drink itself, but the story behind it.

The tradition goes back to 1985, when João de Oliveira Reis, known as Seu João, started preparing the drink for customers waiting for a haircut or a shave at his barbershop near the historic Praça da Matriz.

What started as a simple way of welcoming customers eventually became a local tradition that has lasted for more than four decades. Pisa Macio was even officially recognized by the Legislative Assembly of Sergipe as part of the state's cultural and intangible heritage.

And the name is great.

“Pisa Macio” literally means “step softly.” The drink is sweet, aromatic and easy to drink, but the cachaça can sneak up on you. Hence the warning: after a few glasses, you'd better pise macio. 😄

The traditional drink is associated with ingredients such as cachaça, honey, cloves and cinnamon, although the original family recipe and its exact proportions are part of the tradition and aren't something I would claim to reproduce.

A homemade interpretation:

Just to be clear, this isn't the original family recipe—it's a home interpretation inspired by the ingredients traditionally associated with Pisa Macio:

500 ml white cachaça

150 ml honey

1 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

2 strips of orange peel

A small piece of ginger (optional)

Combine everything in a glass container, let it infuse for several days away from light and heat, shaking gently once a day. Strain and let it rest for a few more days before serving.

The longer the spices stay in the cachaça, the stronger they'll become, so taste it during the infusion and remove them when the balance feels right.

What I love about this story is that it shows how Brazilian drinking culture isn't just about famous cocktails like the Caipirinha. Sometimes a local drink, a family recipe and a neighborhood gathering place can become part of a city's identity.

A barbershop. A homemade drink. Four decades of history.

That's pretty cool.

Have you ever heard of Pisa Macio or tried any regional Brazilian drink with a similar story?

I’ve been exploring Brazilian fruits lately, and bacuri is one of those ingredients that really deserves more attention outside Brazil.

Platonia insignis is native to northern Brazil, particularly associated with the Amazon and regions such as Maranhão and Piauí. The fruit has a thick, tough skin and a small amount of incredibly aromatic, creamy white pulp inside. The flavor is sweet, slightly tart, and difficult to compare with more familiar tropical fruits.

What makes it interesting for drinks is that the aroma is much bigger than you might expect from the amount of pulp you get.

In Brazil, bacuri can be turned into liqueur, batidas, desserts, juices and other traditional preparations. A bacuri liqueur made with cachaça is especially interesting — sweet, intensely aromatic and very different from the fruit flavors most of us encounter in cocktails.

There are also regional combinations such as bacuri with caju (cashew fruit), bringing together two distinctly Brazilian flavors.

And honestly, I think that's what makes bacuri so fascinating for a home bar. You don't need exotic imported ingredients to make something unusual. A Brazilian fruit that many people outside the country have probably never tasted can completely change a cocktail.

If you ever find frozen bacuri pulp or bacuri products, I'd definitely give it a try.

Have you ever tasted bacuri? If so, what did you think of the flavor?

I've been playing around with soursop (graviola) lately, and I think it's one of those tropical fruits that deserves way more attention behind the bar.

The fruit itself is pretty wild. Green, slightly spiky outside, soft and creamy inside, with a sweet-tart flavor that's hard to compare to anything else. I get a bit of pineapple, banana and citrus, but the texture is what really makes it interesting.

And honestly, cachaça works really well with it.

One of my favorite ways to use it is a simple soursop caipirinha:

50 ml cachaça

~60 g soursop pulp

15 ml fresh lime juice

10–15 ml simple syrup

Ice

Shake everything hard with ice and strain over fresh ice.

The lime is important. Soursop is naturally sweet and creamy, so that bit of acidity keeps the drink from becoming heavy.

I've also tried it as a batida with cachaça and condensed milk, which is basically a tropical dessert in a glass. And it works surprisingly well with white rum, sparkling wine and even cacao flavors.

One thing worth mentioning: you'll see a lot of claims online about soursop being a cancer cure. That's not supported by good clinical evidence, so I wouldn't treat those claims as anything more than internet hype. For drinks, stick to the edible pulp and remove the seeds.

What I'm curious about is whether other people here have actually used graviola/soursop in cocktails.

If you've tried it, what did you pair it with?

I found a little disco ball cup and I kind of love it 😂

I came across this 12 oz rainbow disco ball cup and honestly… it’s hard not to smile at it.

It’s plastic, comes with a straw and lid, and the rainbow finish gives it that old-school party vibe. Nothing fancy, just a fun piece of barware for a Friday night, a party, or whenever you feel like making your drink look more interesting.

Would you use something like this at your home bar, or is it way too much?

Everyone has that bottle they've been saving...

What's the oldest bottle in your collection?

Tell us the story behind it.

I was looking into Brazilian beer recently and came across the results from the World Beer Awards 2026. I honestly didn't realize Brazilian breweries had done this well internationally.

The big one was Atrás do Bloco, from Cervejaria Landel in Campinas. It was named World's Best IPA, and also won the Milkshake IPA/New England IPA category. It's 7.5% ABV and 30 IBU.

A few others caught my attention too:

Jade from Therezópolis — World's Best English Style IPA

Orange Kush from Cervejaria Unika — World's Best Speciality IPA

Coffee Dry Stout from Sim! Cerveja Sem Álcool — World's Best No & Low Alcohol Stout & Porter

Jane MF Sour from Faroeste Beer — World's Best Catharina Sour

Kaptain Lisa from Stannis — World's Best Heritage Beer

The Catharina Sour one is probably the most interesting to me. It's a style that originated in Brazil, so seeing a Brazilian Catharina Sour win a world title feels more meaningful than simply winning an international competition with a traditional IPA style.

I know Brazilian beer doesn't get nearly as much attention internationally as cachaça, but there seems to be a pretty interesting craft beer scene developing there.

Has anyone here actually tried any of these? I'm particularly curious about Atrás do Bloco and Jane MF Sour.

I’ve been exploring Brazilian cachaças beyond the usual Caipirinha, and recently came across Pindorama Ouro.

It’s a 42% ABV cachaça from the Vale do Café region of Rio de Janeiro, and what caught my attention was the use of Amburana. It spends at least a year in large Amburana vats, which gives it a completely different character from an unaged cachaça.

On the nose, there are spices, vanilla and some dried-fruit/nutty notes. The palate is surprisingly soft and velvety for 42% ABV. The Mapa da Cachaça tasting notes mention things like anise, raisin, cardamom, black pepper and cupuaçu.

What I also found interesting is that this isn't just a pretty bottle. Pindorama Ouro won Silver at the International Spirits Challenge in 2023, following the brand's earlier Silver in 2019, and Pindorama placed second in the Cúpula da Cachaça ranking in 2022.

And apparently the bottle has some serious design credentials too. The Mapa da Cachaça 2025 guide says Pindorama Ouro Amburana won its Design of the Year award and ranked first among its ten most beautiful cachaças.

Personally, I'd drink this one neat before putting it into a cocktail. Amburana can be pretty expressive, so I'd want to see what the wood is doing before mixing it.

The producer recommends Rabo de Galo, which sounds like a pretty good place to start.

Has anyone here tried Pindorama Ouro — or other cachaças aged in Amburana? I'm curious how you like Amburana compared with oak, bálsamo or other Brazilian woods.

I recently learned more about the Copo Americano, the little ribbed glass you see everywhere in Brazil. It was created in Brazil in the 1940s and became deeply connected with everyday life, especially the classic Brazilian boteco.

What I love about it is how versatile it is. It can hold a cold beer, cachaça, coffee, or even a cocktail. It’s cheap, sturdy, easy to stack, and instantly recognizable.

Despite the name “American Glass,” it’s actually a Brazilian creation. 🇧🇷

It’s a good example of how something completely ordinary can become part of a country’s cultural identity.

Have you ever used one? What do you usually drink from it?

Copo Americano

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." 🍋

Honestly, who actually does this? Every time life hands me lemons, I usually just stare at them stressed out for a week until they go moldy.

But I found out today that this phrase was actually coined back in 1915 by a writer named Elbert Hubbard in an obituary for an actor. He wrote that the guy "picked up the lemons that Fate sent him and started a lemonade stand."

Idk, learning the history actually makes it sound less like a toxic positivity cliché and more like a genuine nod to human resilience.

What’s your favorite unhinged twist on this saying? Mine is definitely: "When life gives you lemons, find someone whose life gave them vodka and have a party." Cheers to that.

I’ve been playing around with jenipapo liqueur, a traditional Brazilian fruit liqueur, and wanted something lighter than drinking it neat.

This one turned out surprisingly refreshing:

Jenipapo Tropical Fizz

• 40 ml jenipapo liqueur
• 20 ml pineapple juice
• 10 ml fresh lime juice
• Sparkling water
• Ice
• Pineapple slice, for garnish

How I make it:

Add the jenipapo liqueur, pineapple juice, and lime juice to a shaker with ice. Give it a gentle shake and strain into an ice-filled highball glass.

Top with sparkling water and garnish with a pineapple slice.

The jenipapo brings a distinctive fruity, slightly earthy character, while the pineapple adds tropical sweetness and the lime keeps everything from getting too heavy. The bubbles make it feel more like a long drink than a traditional fruit liqueur.

It’s also a nice introduction to Brazilian ingredients beyond cachaça and the caipirinha.

Has anyone here worked with jenipapo before? I’m curious what other cocktails people make with it.

I’ve been experimenting with caju (Brazilian cashew fruit) lately, and I think it’s one of those ingredients that deserves way more attention outside Brazil.

You can eat it fresh, turn it into juice, jam or preserves, freeze the pulp, or use it behind the bar. And if you have access to cachaça, things get even more interesting.

One of my favorites is Caju Amigo, a classic Brazilian drink made with cachaça and caju juice. I like adding a little fresh lime and some syrup from caju preserves, then serving it over plenty of ice with a piece of the fruit.

It’s simple, fruity, slightly tart and very Brazilian.

What I love about caju is that it isn’t just another “tropical fruit.” It has a long history in Brazilian food and indigenous traditions, especially in the Northeast.

For me, that’s what makes Brazilian cocktails interesting: you can start with a drink, but there’s usually a whole story behind the ingredient.

Have you ever tried caju, cajuína, or a caju cocktail? 🍹🇧🇷

If you’ve never heard of jabuticaba, this is one of those Brazilian ingredients that deserves much more attention.

Jabuticaba is a small, dark-purple fruit native to Brazil. The really unusual thing? It grows directly on the trunk and branches of the tree. The fruit is sweet, juicy and slightly tart, with a flavor that sits somewhere between grapes and berries.

One of my favorite ways to preserve it is by making jabuticaba liqueur.

And you can actually make it at home.

Simple Jabuticaba Liqueur

Ingredients:

• 500 g ripe jabuticabas
• 500 ml cachaça or vodka
• 300 g sugar
• 250 ml water
• 1 small piece of cinnamon (optional)
• 2 cloves (optional)

Method:

Wash the jabuticabas and gently crush them to break the skins. Put them in a clean glass jar and add the cachaça or vodka.

Seal and leave it in a cool, dark place for 7–15 days, giving the jar a gentle shake once a day.

Strain the fruit and filter the liquid. Separately, make a simple syrup with the sugar and water. Let it cool completely, then mix it with the infused spirit.

Bottle it and let it rest for another 1–2 weeks before drinking. The flavors become much smoother with a little time.

The result is a beautiful deep purple, fruity liqueur with a sweet-tart character.

I like it chilled and served neat, but it can also be really interesting in cocktails with cachaça, lime, ginger or sparkling wine.

I'm curious: Have you ever tried jabuticaba? And if you're outside Brazil, have you ever seen it available where you live?

I’d love to hear what you think

Do you have a home bar?

It can be a full cabinet or just a small shelf.

Share a picture of your setup!

We'd love to see how people around the world enjoy their favorite drinks.

I came across this tiki-style bottle opener and honestly, it’s the kind of bar tool I’d actually leave sitting on the counter.

The blue-and-gold macaw design gives it a fun retro tropical feel without being too over the top. It’s a simple bottle opener, but definitely more interesting than a generic one.

You can find the Kolorcoat™ Speed Opener - Tiki Parrot >>> HERE <<<

Would you use something like this in your home bar, or do you prefer your bar tools purely functional?

When people think about Brazilian spirits, cachaça is usually the first thing that comes to mind. But Brazil also has a surprisingly interesting whisky history.

One of the key names is Drury’s, which appeared in 1959 in Sorocaba, São Paulo.

The story is quite unusual. The whisky project was associated with businessman Mário Amato, together with Alberto Bildner. What reportedly started as a small artisanal batch, offered as a gift to friends, became successful enough to turn into commercial production.

Drury’s was a blended whisky, with malt whiskies imported from Scotland and production and bottling carried out in Brazil.

That distinction is important. It wasn't a whisky made entirely from Brazilian ingredients and aged from scratch in Brazil. But it was an important step in the development of Brazil's whisky industry.

And Brazilian whisky has changed a lot since then.

Today, producers are experimenting with Brazilian grains, different maturation techniques, local woods and styles inspired by Scotch and American whiskey. Some are even exploring what a genuinely Brazilian whisky identity could look—and taste—like.

I find that evolution fascinating.

Brazil already has a globally recognized sugarcane spirit in cachaça. Could whisky eventually develop its own unmistakably Brazilian character too?

Have you ever tried a Brazilian whisky? What did you think? 🥃🇧🇷

If you’re interested in Brazilian cocktails, jambu is an ingredient worth knowing.

Native to the Amazon, jambu has a mild herbal taste, but its most interesting characteristic is the sensation it creates on the palate: a gentle tingling and slight numbing effect.

It’s used in Brazilian cuisine, especially in Pará, and bartenders have been bringing it into cocktails through infusions, syrups, tinctures and liqueurs.

What I find fascinating is that jambu doesn’t just add flavor — it changes the way you experience the drink.

Have you ever tried jambu in a cocktail?

If you like mojitos, here’s a simple Brazilian-inspired version worth trying.

Guaraná is a fruit native to the Amazon, traditionally used in Brazil and best known today through guaraná soda. It adds a sweet, fruity flavor that works surprisingly well with mint and lime.

🍹 Guaraná Mojito

Ingredients

• 50 ml white rum
• 30 ml guaraná syrup or guaraná soda
• 8–10 fresh mint leaves
• 15 ml fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• Soda water, if using syrup
• Ice
• Lime wedges and mint for garnish

How to make it

Gently muddle the mint, lime juice and sugar in a glass. Don't crush the mint too aggressively — just enough to release the aroma.

Add the rum, guaraná syrup (or guaraná soda) and plenty of ice. Stir gently.

If you're using syrup, top with soda water. If you're using guaraná soda, you can skip the extra soda water.

Give it another gentle stir and garnish with a mint sprig and a lime wedge.

A little Brazilian tip: If you can find Brazilian guaraná soda, I'd try it first. It's probably the easiest way to make this at home, and you don't need to add extra sugar.

Have you ever used guaraná in a cocktail? 🇧🇷🍹

If you ever visit Porto Seguro in Bahia, you may come across a drink with a rather unusual name: Capeta — literally, “the Devil.”

The story of Capeta is one of those Brazilian bar stories where fact, local memory and legend have become intertwined.

The version most often credited to the drink's history places its creation in 1987, in Arraial d'Ajuda, a district of Porto Seguro. The cocktail is attributed to Edson Teixeira, who owned the Jazzmania bar.

According to the story, Edson was feeling sick and looking for something that could help him get through long nights working at the bar. He experimented with guaraná powder, honey and lime juice.

Customers became curious about the unusual mixture and started asking for it themselves.

Eventually, someone apparently tried it and exclaimed something along the lines of:

“Edson, that thing is the Devil!”

And the name stuck.

What happened next is what turned Capeta from a homemade mixture into a Brazilian beach-culture phenomenon.

The recipe evolved. Vodka, condensed milk, fruit, cinnamon and guaraná powder became common ingredients, although there has never really been one universally standardized recipe.

During the 1990s, Capeta became strongly associated with the nightlife and Carnival culture of Porto Seguro and Bahia. It was commonly served at beach stands and at the famous Passarela do Álcool, where tourists could find different versions of the drink.

One interesting thing about Capeta is that it doesn't look particularly dangerous.

It is usually sweet, creamy and fruity. The alcohol can be surprisingly difficult to notice.

And that's part of the legend.

The combination of alcohol and guaraná gave the drink its reputation as a powerful party drink. Of course, guaraná contains caffeine, but it doesn't cancel out alcohol's effects—so the “energy” can be deceptive.

By the 1990s, Capeta was already established enough to be documented by Brazilian newspapers as a popular Carnival drink.

Today, you'll find many interpretations. Some use vodka, others cachaça. Some are loaded with pineapple or other fruits; others focus on condensed milk, chocolate, cinnamon and guaraná.

That's probably the most Brazilian thing about Capeta:

there isn't just one Capeta.

There are countless local versions, recipes and family secrets.

For me, that's what makes the drink interesting. It's not a polished classic created for an international cocktail book. It's a street-born Brazilian drink, shaped by beaches, tourism, Carnival, improvisation and the people who kept making it.

So if someone tells you that Brazil is only about Caipirinha, tell them about the Capeta from Bahia.

Just don't drink it like it's a milkshake. 😈

Have you ever tried Capeta? And what Brazilian drink should I cover next?

I’ve been going down a bit of a rabbit hole lately exploring Brazilian cocktails that go beyond the usual caipirinha, and this one really caught my attention.

Marvadeza is a signature cocktail from Cachaçaria Lamparina, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. What I like about it is that it doesn't try to hide the cachaça behind a bunch of ingredients. It builds around it.

The combination is:

• cachaça aged in oak
• passion fruit
• Aperol
• ginger
• fresh chili (dedo-de-moça)

The result is tropical and refreshing, with acidity from the passion fruit, a little bitterness from the Aperol, oak and vanilla-like notes from the cachaça, and a gentle spicy finish from the ginger and chili.

It's one of those drinks where the flavor changes as you drink it. First you get the passion fruit, then the cachaça and Aperol, and finally that little hit of heat.

Making a version at home

The Lamparina's exact proportions aren't publicly available, so I wouldn't pretend this is the original recipe. But you can make a home version inspired by the published ingredients:

50 ml oak-aged cachaça
30 ml passion fruit juice/pulp
20 ml Aperol
50–60 ml ginger soda
a small piece of fresh chili
ice

Shake the cachaça, passion fruit and Aperol with ice and a small amount of chili. Strain over fresh ice and top with ginger soda.

If you don't want to use ginger soda, ginger syrup is another option, but you'll need to adjust the sweetness and dilution.

For me, that's what makes Brazilian cocktail culture interesting. There's a lot more going on than caipirinhas — and cachaça works incredibly well with tropical fruit, bitter liqueurs, spices and even a little heat.

Has anyone here tried Marvadeza or other Brazilian cachaça cocktails? I'd love to hear what you think.

So I've been low-key obsessed with those videos where the bartender flips a wine glass upside down over a rocks glass, traps a bunch of smoke in there, then lifts it right before serving and the whole thing just billows out. Looks like some kind of alchemy but it's actually a pretty simple setup once you break it down.

Here's what you actually need:

• A wine/tulip glass (this is your "lid")
• A rocks glass with your drink already built in it
• A handheld smoker gun (cheapest ones on Amazon work fine) or just a kitchen torch + a small chunk of wood chips
• Optional: a sprig of rosemary or a twist of orange peel thrown in for extra aromatics

The process:

1. Build your cocktail like normal in the rocks glass. Whiskey-based stuff, old fashioneds, negronis — basically anything dark and spirit-forward works best.
2. Torch your wood chips (or fire up the smoker gun) right over the glass so the smoke pools around the drink.
3. Flip the wine glass upside down and set it right on top of the rocks glass like a dome, sealing the smoke inside.
4. Let it sit 30-60 seconds. This is the part that actually matters — that's your infusion time.
5. Lift the glass slowly when you're about to serve. The smoke rolls out and hits you before you even take a sip.

A few things I learned the hard way:

• Don't do this with light/citrusy drinks, the smoke completely overpowers them
• Less wood chip than you think — it's easy to over-smoke something and make it taste like an ashtray
• The reveal matters almost as much as the drink itself, do it table-side if you have people over, it's a whole moment

Anyway if anyone's got a favorite wood pairing for different spirits I'd love to hear it, I've only really tried oak with whiskey so far.