Product: Cabana Cachaca: Brazilian Rum is an Acquired Taste, So You Won’t Want to Start with this Top-Shelf Bottle Producer: Cabana Cachaca Approximate Retail Value: $34.99 for 750ml Category: Rum Country of Origin: Brazil Reviewer: Jon Costantino The F Words: Flavor – Dry; should be sweeter. Feel – Smooth; very fruity. Finish – Bitter and lifeless.

Rating:

I’ve been known to have a caipirinha from time to time when visiting my local all-you-can-eat Brazilian steak house. Considered the national drink of Brazil, the caipirinha consists of rum, limes and a hint of sugar, and it is considered one of the trendier drinks on the club scene, along with the mojito which uses the same rum as its base. To capitalize on these two drinks’ popularity, Cabana Cachaca ( pronounced “kuh-shahsuh”) and its investment banker-turned-drink maven, Matti C. Anttila, has released a high quality (and high-priced) rum, which, unlike most of its kind, is produced with sugarcane instead of molasses. While slightly refreshing, the Cabana Cachaca was bitterer than I expected, and it was already giving me a slight hangover before I finished the first glass.

Since it was recommended that Cabana Cachaca be used in a caipirinha, I made one for myself. I cut a lime into piece, which I then pressed for every ounce of juice. Then I added sugar (actually, it was Splenda), club soda and the cachaca. Then I placed it in a shaker and poured over ice. At first, the limes did complement the rum very nicely, but then the taste began to change. The lightness that came with the citrus of the lime was replaced by a dry, bitter taste that made me more thirsty than refreshed. The aftertaste was something I have never quite experienced. It was as if the drink desired to have more flavor but fell flat instead. Soon, I realized that most of the sugarcane rum had seemingly disappeared and the flavor left behind was reminiscent of absentmindedly sucking on the limes at the end of a margarita. The worst part was that after a nice rocks glass full of the caipirinha, I was still craving a drink but only because I was so thirsty.

I decided then that, even though this was a top-shelf rum, I would try something a little more practical than Brazil’s pride and joy. I filled a glass with ice, then poured some of the Cabana Cachaca followed by lemon-lime soda, no lime. After the first sip, the bitterness of the rum hit me so hard, I had to go back for the Splenda.

While I am impressed that Cabana Cachaca is made in small batches, which are placed in wooden barrels for six months to mellow, I could actually taste the planks of wood in the glass. While it might be okay to enjoy the oak flavor of a barrel-fermented wine, I thought for a second I could feel splinters in the glass. The lemon-lime soda did nothing to enhance the flavor of the rum, and the whole experiment was a failure.

While there were merits to the caipirinha, the rum seems to be the part I enjoyed the least. On a hot summer day, like the one when I tried the Cabana Cachaca, I expect a lime-flavored rum drink to make me feel cooler and refreshed, not make me wish I ordered something else. Some drinks are just meant to be served in the environments they have been cultivated to accompany. So while you might enjoy Cabana Cachaca when waiters are passing around skewers of bacon-wrapped steaks and sausages, you might want to grab something else when at the bar.