Trowbridge Street Bistro: Summer cocktail

Each spring, I seem to gravitate towards one cocktail that I then enjoy throughout the remainder of the summer. Last year, it was Blue Moon's summertime beer (Honey Moon). The year before last, it was mint juleps.

Well, it looks like this is the summer of the Caipirinha! The Caipirinha is the national drink of Brazil, and is made with lime, sugar, and Cachaca, which is a rum made from sugarcane.

Here's how we make ours: (This will yield two drinks)

• Make some simple syrup. We use 2 parts sugar to one part water. Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan on the stove, and stir until the water is slightly warm and the sugar has dissolved. Cool this in the refrigerator.
• Squeeze the juice from three limes into a cocktail shaker filled about 1/2 full with ice.
• Put an equal amount of simple syrup to lime juice into the shaker (this is usually about 1/3 c. of simple syrup).
• Measure about three shots of Cachaca and pour into the cocktail shaker.
• Shake it up, and pour it out into two glasses. We like ours served on ice with one of the squeezed lime halves in the glass.

The Caipirinha is the perfect summertime cocktail. It's the perfect thing to sip after a long day at work, or with friends on the weekend. Make them. You'll like them.