Cachaça makers and importers have been celebrating the recent agreement between the USA and Brazil that has Brazil recognizing American spirits like Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey in exchange for the American recognition of Cachaça as its own spirit category.
Until now all cachaça in the United States has been categorized as “rum” by the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau). This is because cachaça is a sugarcane spirit – it’s made (more or less) by pressing the juice from the cane, fermenting that, and then distilling it. In the USA, until today, all spirits derived from sugar cane or cane byproducts (like molasses) with less than 2% additive was a rum. That was the end of it.
Brazilians have long-fought for freedom from this label. They insist that cachaça is a different animal, and one worthy of its own classification.
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