In the busy streets of Camden Town, there’s a place that offers a great deal of Brazilian culture, with food, drinks, decorations, music and a collection of 400 bottles of cachaça. Labels are divided between Made in Brasil and Made in Brasil Boteco, both in the famous North London area.
The collection began 11 years ago when the bar first opened its doors. The former owner and the manager bought a few bottles to use in decoration. Then the current owner, Renato Paziam (photo), began working on site. As an appreciator of cachaça, Renato increased the number with a gentle request to his friends: “When returning from Brazil, bring me a cachaça for the collection,” says Renato. “And that pervaded friends and increased the network with customers as well. I will not say that every week I received a new bottle, but at least once a month someone comes with a gift of cachaça.”
Since then, the collection took shape and today completes the charm of the houses’ environment, exposing labels from all regions of the country. “Brazil produces cachaça in all regions, so there’s a huge variety. For example, in São Paulo, the Pirassununga region produces 51. In Minas Gerais, the region of Salinas. And in the south, Webber House has been produced since 1948 by a German family.”
Among the labels, Renato highlights the Anísio Santiago, which is considered the best cachaça in the world. The famous Cachaça, Sagatiba Envelhecida, a single batch that was found in an old building after 23 years of aging in European oak barrels from the nineteenth century. “The intention is to increase the collection and enhance a product that is the face of Brazil and with excellent acceptance abroad”.
Altogether, there are 20 different options on the menu for tasting.
CAIPIRINHA
Undoubtedly, the caipirinha is the most famous Brazilian drink. And its differential everyone already knows: “caipirinha is made with cachaça, with vodka has another name, is the caipirosca,” emphasizes Renato. “In most cases, it’s a conditional factor for a costumer asks for the drink: saipirinha with cachaça.”
In Made in Brazil you can find several flavours of caipirinhas, cockatials of cachaça. After experiencing, the acceptance is immediate!
Curiosities
- Cachaca is only cachaça if it has been made in Brazil! Any other distilled from sugarcane which has been produced outside the country should have another name.
- In 1659, the Portuguese crown banned cachaça production in Brazil fearing competition with the bagaceira, a Portuguese distillate made from grape.
- The prohibition was not cheap for the Portuguese court. In 1660, the Rio de Janeiro producers revolted and managed to seize power in Rio de Janeiro for five months. This period in which the trade of rum was released became known as the Revolt of the Cachaça.
- In 1789, during the Minas Conspiracy, intellectuals, priests and military involved drank cachaça as a symbol of democracy.
- During the Modern Art Week in 1922, cachaça was greatly exalted. The intention of the organizers – artists like Oswald de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira and Anita Malfati – was to rescue the rich Brazilian culture that cachaça kept.
- Cachaça is the third most consumed distilled drink in the world.
- There are over 300 synonyms for cachaça. Bendita, marvada, caninha, branquinha, amarelinha, água que passarinho não bebe, parati and mé are just some of them…
- Cachaça is the only drink that can be aged in more than 30 kinds of wood.
- In Brazil, there are now more than 40,000 houses producing cachaça! Each producer has a different regional characteristic. It makes our beloved cachaça have one of the most complex aroma and flavours distilled in the world.
