With summer finally here it’s impossible to resist indulging in crisp and cool cocktails.

If you really want to impress your friendship circle, why not whip up your own cocktails at home. But make sure you use only the best ingredients to get the best flavour and avoid unnecessary headaches.

One of the finest ingredients to keep in your liquor cupboard is Germana Cachaça. Cachaça is the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage produced in Brazil where 1.5 billion litres are consumed annually. The original and finest quality Cachaça is Germana Cachaça, made from sugar cane and aged in oak barrels for a unique and distinctive taste. It is the key ingredient of an authentic Brazilian Caipirinha cocktail so when you order one, make sure it’s Germana.

Germana Cachaça is imported and distributed in South Africa by the smart boys at Liquidity who are also importers of other premium and super-premium spirits like Taittinger Champagne, Patrón Tequila and Compass Box whisky.

The production of Germana Cachaça begins with the growing of sugar cane by the Caetano family on the Vista Alegre ranch, which stretches over 300 hectares near the Brazilian town of Nova Uniao.

The Caetano family first produced Cachaça over 100 years ago and the name pays homage to the mystical Germana – a 19th century nun whose remedies prepared from Cachaça and local herbs, attracted thousands of pilgrims. She was martyred for claiming to have such powers.

The word Germana also means pure, which is appropriate for liquor produced entirely by hand, with sugar cane cut using machetes to ensure that only the cane with the best concentration of sugars is harvested.

To prevent fermentation the cut cane is immediately transported to the distillery on donkey back, where it is ground to extract the juice. The juice is gravity fed to the fermentation tanks, where ground yellow corn is added to initiate fermentation which takes two to three weeks. After fermentation the liquid is gravity fed to the copper pot still.

A single distillation captures the aromatic nature of Cachaça and ensures a spirit that is pure but expresses the flavours of Germana. The spirit is then softened by resting for a few months in indigenous wood vats, before the Cachaça is transferred to oak barrels where it matures for between two and 10 years.

The Cachaça is then cut to 43% proof with water from the natural mountain springs on Vista Alegre estate, and bottled by hand. Each bottle is carefully wrapped in the bark of a banana tree to protect the Cachaça from light and to moderate its temperature.

The end result is the finest quality Cachaça which is exported to be used in Caipirinha cocktails around the globe.

This week iMod shows you how to impress your friends with an authentic Caipirinha cocktail.

Caipirinha: Friday 11 December 2009

Ingredients:

• 50ml Germana Cachaça
• 1 large lime (seedless)
• 20ml Gomme syrup / 1 ½ table spoon castor sugar

Glass:

• Tumbler/Rocks

Method:

• Cut a lime in half and each half into 6 pieces.
• Add this to the glass with sugar and 25ml Germana.
• Muddle lightly to extract juice from limes.
• Add another 25ml Germana and stir.
• Add crushed or cubed ice and stir.
• Add a straw and serve.

How’s that for the perfect summer cocktail!

Visit www.liq.co.za or call (021) 905 9066 for more information.

I have a whole collection of cocktail recipes available here.