A few weeks ago Leblon Cachaca was the first-ever sponsor for the Mixoloseum’s Thursday Drink Night event. I mentioned just before the event that Gabriel from CocktailNerd.com and I were going to be taking part in this event live from Trader Vic’s in Las Vegas, courtesy of our new sponsors. I’ve already covered the Vic’s part of the evening over at the Mixoloseum blog, and heartily recommend you go check it out.
Gabe and I spent a lot of time making drinks with the bartenders at Vic’s. It was a lot of fun. While we created a few drinks that I really liked (one of which I haven’t mentioned yet, but will be included in my upcoming review of Leblon), there is one that really stood out to me as the best of the evening.
Sao Paulo Iced Tea
2 oz Leblon Cachaca
1 oz Absolut Peach Vodka
1 oz Gin
.5 oz Cointreau
.5 oz Lemon Juice
.5 oz Lime Juice
.5 oz Simple Syrup
Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a tall glass with ice and top with soda. Garnish with a sprig of mint.
What I really enjoy about this drink is the way the strong, overripe fruit notes of the cachaca play with the citrus juice and the peach flavor of the vodka. The drink is light and refreshing. Winter is the completely wrong season for sipping this drink (but hello new favorite summertime drink!), but I can’t stop making these and toying with little changes to the recipe to suit my mood. Last night I had one with 2 dashes of angostura bitters added to the mix. I’ve tried different gins, different orange liqueurs (I have a serious addiction to Clement Creole Shrubb), orange bitters, demerara syrup…the list goes on and on and each variation is just as delicious and refreshing as the last.
So you no longer have an excuse to only drink Leblon in caipirinhas. Get out there and try this drink and let me know what you think. Have a tweak or suggestion? Share it! And be sure to join the entire Mixoloseum crew every Thursday for Thursday Drink Night!
, tdn