Alcoholic Drinks
Beer is mainly of the lager type. Brazilians drink it ice-cold and it comes mostly in 600ml bottles: ask for a cerveja. Many places only serve beer on draught - called chopp. Generally acknowledged as the best brands are the regional beers of Para and Maranhao, Cerma and Cerpa, but the best nationally available beers are Skol and Brahma. Antartica is similar and more widely available, Kaiser is a little watery. However, all Brazilian beer is stuffed with anti-oxidants and preservatives, which contributes to thumping hangovers the next day even after only a few. Wine , vinho, is mostly mediocre and sweet, though some of the wines produced in the South aren't too bad. In the Italian areas of Rio Grande do Sul, try the small farmers' own wines - very different from European and US wines but excellent in their own right. Among the better commercial ones are Almaden, Chateau Chandon, Baron de Lantier and Cotes de Blancs (white - branco) and Forestier, Conde de Foucaud, Chateau Duvalier and Baron de Lantier (red - tinto). Best of all, though, are the wines of the Casa Valduga, occasionally available in Rio's and Sao Paulo's best hotels and restaurants, and Miolo, a smallish producer whose wines are available in gourmet food stores. Perfectly drinkable wine is also produced in Santa Catarina and in Parana, while the wine from Espirito Santo and Sao Paulo is pretty dreadful, produced purely for regional consumption. Imported wines from Chile and Argentina (or Europe) are generally better and often cheaper than even the best that Brazil produces. As for spirits , you can buy Scotch ( uisque), either nacional, made up from imported whisky essence and not worth drinking, or internacional, imported and extremely expensive. Far better to stick to what Brazilians drink, cachaca (also called pinga or in Rio, paraty), which is sugar-cane rum. The best cachaca is produced in stills on country farms; it is called cachaca da terra, and has a smoothness and taste the commercially produced brands lack. You won't find it in stores, but it's often on sale in markets. There are scores of brands of commercially produced rum: some of the better ones are Velho Barreiro, Pitu and 51. Brazilians drink cachaca either neat or mixed with fruit juice. Neat, it's very fiery, but in a cocktail it can be delicious. By far the best way to drink it is in a caipirinha , along with football and music one of Brazil's great gifts to world civilization. This is rum mixed with fresh lime, sugar and crushed ice: it may not sound like much, but it is the best cocktail you're ever likely to drink. You should stir it regularly while drinking, and treat it with healthy respect - it is much more powerful than it tastes. Variants are the caipirosca or caipirissima, the same made with vodka. Waiters will often assume foreigners want vodka, so make sure you say caipirinha de cachaca. You can also get batidas , rum mixed with fruit juice and ice, which flow like water during Carnaval : they also pack quite a punch, despite tasting like a soft drink. A cuba libre is a rum and Coke. There are no licensing laws in Brazil, so you can get a drink at any time of day or night.
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