13
JANUARY 1 2009
AMERICANWAY
If rum seems a bit ho-hum to you,
look toSouthAmerica for its tasty
highball replacement. That’swhere
cachaça, a liquormade from fer-
mented anddistilled sugarcane
juice, rules. Though cachaça’smain
U.S. presencewas, formerly, in
Brazilian restaurants, the lovely liq-
uid is now hitting cocktail menus
of swank lounges andbars from
east coast towest. (In fact, cacha-
ça imports to theUnitedStates
tripledbetween2002 and2007.)
Your bestway into the land of
cachaça is to startwith the drink’s
best trainingwheels, the ever-so-
tasty caipirinha— a sweet-and-
sour cocktail that’s amuddle of
cachaça, lime, and sugar.
For one of themost authentic,
tastiest caipirinhas that you’ll ever
sip stateside, stopby
Plataforma
ChurrascariaRodizio
(316West
49thStreet, 212-245-0505, www
.churrascariaplataforma.com) in
NewYorkCity. Yep, it’s aBrazilian
restaurant—but it serves a
Brazilian
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