For me, any good barbecue is only as good as the quality of the products you use. Living in Barcelona makes it easy to use quality, fresh food products, but, as we have been discussing in previous articles, finding the other necessary products (quality barbecues, cast iron and utensils) have been harder to source. The same can be said for the choice of alcohol…do not get me wrong, the quality of local wines are fantastic, but quality spirits are harder to come by at a barbecue. And I understand somewhat, good cheap wine, who needs anything else, right?!
Homemade “Da Boa” Cachaça with João Manoel and Fernanda
Still, Nothing beats a quality cachaça.
After a great meal, with a full stomach, and the sun going down, a nip of barrel-aged cachaça cannot be beat in my book–a quality tequila would be a close second–but both have been almost impossible to source locally. So every time we have gone to Brasil, we stocked up on bottles to bring back with us, but it has been never enough for our demands.
My father-in-law, João Manoel has aged his own cachaça at home in Brasil and we have enjoyed it there often–especially around the Christmas holidays in Brasil (Note: Christmas is in summer in Brasil) and when he has visit us in Barcelona.
Finally, we decided to try it ourselves at home and it was pretty easy. The hard part was to be patience and wait for 9-12 months for it to be optimal to drink. Although, João Manoel has recommended we check it every so often…
Make sure to test it every month or so…you know…to make sure it is aging correctly. 😉 – Joan Manoel
This video shows the process to age our own cachaça for at least 9 months using Cachaça 51 and french oak barrels. You can use any cachaça, but we use 51 because it is good starting quality and easy to find locally. Let us know if you have any questions. Enjoy! I know my friends and I have.
The music we used in the video is a remake based on the song, “Brasileirinho”. It was recorded in our living room by François Caballero and João Silva as part of Bom Soir Recordings.
The video work was done by Local Producer with help from FA Retail.
