BBC: There is no other drink that represents Brazil more than the sugar cane spirit cachaça.
You visit a bustling bar with friends on a hot evening, and enjoy cold glasses of the country's national cocktail - caipirinha, a mixture of cachaça, sugar, and lime, with lots and lots of ice.
Or just as popular - you drink cachaça neat, downing shots to toast your companions.
Yet like the nation as a whole, the spirit has had a difficult pandemic.
With bars and restaurants across Brazil closed for long periods since last spring and households not allowed to mix, sales slumped by almost a quarter in 2020.
Producers and industry leaders now hope to boost overseas orders of cachaça, in order to compensate. But as Luciano Sadi Andrade, marketing manager at distillers Companhia Müller de Bebidas, admits: "It has always been a challenge... to explain the concept of cachaça for the foreign market."
So what exactly is cachaça? Pronounced "ka-SHAS-sa", it is distilled from sugar cane juice. This, Brazil says, makes it different to rum, which is typically made from the molasses, or thick treacle, left over after sugar cane has been processed into sugar.
Fans of cachaça say this makes it taste fresher and fruitier than rum. » | Luana Ferreira, Business reporter, Brazil | Thursday, August 19, 2021
