Hooch, Man #6: Caipirinhas

I've been curious about caipirinhas for years now. I took and almost double-majored in Portuguese when I was an undergraduate and my parents purchased Master Bartender's Dale DeGroff's masterpiece The Craft Of The Cocktail which features plenty of recipes for caipirinhas and various permutations of them that looked plain delicious. When the Missus came back from Florida in January with a new found love of pina coladas, I thought it'd be nice to offer up another special tropical cocktail for her golden birthday...

First thing I needed:

(No, it's not a mini baseball bat. Or a sex toy, you perverts. It's a muddler! A perfect tool for the wannabe bartender which allows you to mash up ingredients... which we'll get to later.) Then came... the cachaça! Brazil's sugarcane rum and the primary ingredient in making the perfect caipirinha. (Available locally at Dirty John's...)

Next, we get a lime. Quarter it and then place the lime in a either a shaker or something that you can shake- in this case, a very tall glass. Add a teaspoon of brown sugar and then fill your glass with ice. Muddle! (Until you get all the juice and sugar dissolved.)

Pour ice into shaker and shake vigorously before pouring it all back into your glass.

Drink and enjoy!