Walk into a bar in São Paulo and ask for a Caipirinha, and nobody asks which cachaca you want. The bottle is already standing there. It has been standing there for decades, with the same red number on the label and the same green smell of freshly pressed cane.
The expert's description
Cachaca 51 Premium Brasil Spirit is an unaged Cachaca column distilled from freshly pressed sugarcane juice at Companhia Müller de Bebidas and bottled at 40%.
The distillery sits in Pirassununga in the state of São Paulo, a couple of hours inland from the coast, and since 1959 the company has built the brand into the best-selling one in Brazil. A second plant at Cabo de Santo Agostinho in Pernambuco covers the north of the country. Continuous column distillation is what makes that scale possible, and it is also what gives 51 its even, predictable profile from bottle to bottle.
Brazilian law is precise about what cachaca is: fermented and distilled sugarcane juice, bottled between 38 and 48 percent. The requirement for juice, rather than for molasses out of the sugar refinery, is the actual border with rum. It is why 51 tastes of the field and not of syrup, even though both drinks trace back to the same plant.
51 is a branca, a clear cachaca with no time in wood. No vanilla, no colour, no cask spice getting in the way. What it offers instead is a softer, less peppery distillate than many other unaged cachacas, and that is exactly why it ended up as the default behind the bar, where the lime and the sugar need room of their own.
Tasting notes
Nose
Cane juice and cut grass, with a trace of ripe banana behind it. The alcohol prickles only slightly and there are no sharp edges.
Palate
Soft and lightly sweet. The cane sits in the middle of the tongue with a green, juicy tone, and a thin floral note rises before the alcohol gives one short jab.
Finish
Short and clean. A light herbal tone hangs on for a moment and then the mouth is clear again. That is precisely the sort of finish a drink built on lime wants.
Specifications
Name: Cachaca 51 Premium Brasil Spirit 70 cl 40%
Distillery: Companhia Müller de Bebidas
Region/Country: Pirassununga, São Paulo, Brazil
Type: Cachaca
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Column distilled from freshly pressed sugarcane juice
Serving suggestion: In a Caipirinha with lime and cane sugar, or in a Rabo de Galo with red vermouth
Flavour profile
Green · Sugarcane · Soft · Lightly sweet · Clean
Did you know?
Roughly one in three bottles of cachaca sold in Brazil is a 51. In the state of São Paulo alone the brand accounts for more than half of everything drunk, and the bottle has reached more than fifty countries.
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