Kashasa is an alcoholic drink with a strength of 38 to 50 degrees. It comes in clear or light brown color. It is made in Brazil from fermented sugar cane. Kashasa is considered a symbol of the country, like vodka for us. In 2009, the President of Brazil even signed a decree on the national holiday of Kashasa. Until recently, this drink was unfamiliar to our consumer. Now it can be purchased in specialized stores.
Brazilians are the main consumers of cachasa. 95% of the drink produced in Brazil goes to the domestic market. Moreover, most of it is drunk during the carnival in Rio de Janeiro. In a year, temperamental Latin Americans consume more than 1.5 billion liters, i.e. there are 7.5 liters per inhabitant. At the same time, kasha is considered a drink of the common people and the middle class. Wealthy Brazilians tend to prefer European alcohol. This product is also produced on an industrial scale in Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico. However, true connoisseurs recognize the best cachaça made in Brazil.
The history of the creation of Kashasa
The tradition of producing cachaçu dates back to the 16th century, when the Portuguese brought sugar cane to this country. The culture took root well in the new land and became the main source of income for the colonialists. Slaves from Africa, who collected reeds, noticed that the juice of this plant in the sun begins to ferment, and using it in this form cheers up. It was beneficial for the planters to have cheerful workers because their productivity increased. The owners used this drink as a reward for good work. Then it was a disgusting swill with an unpleasant smell and taste. Later, the Portuguese began to distill the fermented juice through a moonshine still, adding aroma and flavor to the drink, and thus the cachasa was born. Therefore, the ancestors of Kashasa, which is more than 400 years old, can be called black African slaves, and the Portuguese only improved production and quality. The drink began to gain more and more popularity among the local population, displacing the Portuguese port. The colonialists even introduced a number of bans on the production of cachas. But sales of port wine were still falling. And then the Portuguese government lifted the ban, imposed a large tax on the production of alcohol, which ultimately led to the filling of the treasury.
Modern production of Kashasa
Today in Brazil, cachaza is produced everywhere. There are two types of this drink:
- Phasend or artisanal. It is made in private households in an artisanal way.
- Industrial. Manufactured in factories in compliance with standards and regulations. Here the product is certified and released for domestic consumption and export. According to the technology, Kashasa is fresh (white, silver) and is bottled immediately after distillation; aged (golden), which matures in wooden barrels; tinted when the finished product is tinted with natural dyes, caramel or a special extract.
In this case, the status of matured porridge can be assigned under two conditions:
1) the maturation of the drink is carried out in wooden barrels with a volume of no more than 700 liters for one year or more;
2) the drink must be at least 50 degrees. These are the requirements of Brazilian law.
Premium kasha must be aged 5-7 years, and ultra-premium over 15 years. The barrels in which the aging takes place are made of oak, cedar, Araribes.
Kashasa production technology
The highest quality is considered to be fazenda porridge, because it is made in a natural way, and therefore it is valued above the industrial one. Now in Brazil there are more than 40 thousand producers of this drink, but the production volumes are very small. For this reason, natural cachaza is used only in the domestic market, it is not exported. Production goes through several stages:
- Selected sugarcane, harvested by hand, is used as raw material. It is very important that the cane is ripe. The juice of green stems contains dangerous methyl alcohol.
- The harvested cane is squeezed out of juice using primitive hand presses.
- After straining, the juice is poured into wooden barrels and left for independent fermentation on the street. Sometimes, to speed up fermentation, old mash or yeast is added to the juice. Fermentation lasts from 18 to 48 hours.
- Fermented juice is distilled through a copper cube.
- The distillate is poured into glass containers or sent to maturation in wooden barrels.
Artisanal producers follow different production recipes, adding rice, grain, soy, bran, corn flour or other ingredients to the juice, and aging is made in barrels from fruit trees, almonds, chestnuts to give the drink special flavor notes. Making kasha is a long and laborious process, so one farm can produce no more than 200 liters per year.
Harm and benefit
Kashasa does not have any special beneficial properties. But it can be used as an alcohol base for making various tinctures. When applied externally, kasha is used as a disinfectant, antiseptic, hemostatic and wound-healing agent. Since it is a strong alcoholic beverage, it should be consumed in moderation. In case of an overdose, symptoms of intoxication, vomiting and nausea, loss of consciousness, neurological disorders, deterioration of vision and hearing occur. With chronic abuse of porridge, however, like other alcohol, alcohol dependence develops, the liver, heart and brain are affected. …