Abstract
Cachaça - the drink obtained by the distillation of fermented must from sugar cane juice – has been manufactured on an artisanal scale by thousands of Brazilian producers since the 16th century. However, in the 1970s, the survival of these producers was seriously threatened, due to the emergence of and competition from industrial cachaça, produced in significantly larger volumes and sold at very low prices. To help them face the situation, a robust project was designed to support small producers, integrating actions from government institutions, universities and producer associations. Since then, cachaça of rural origin has risen in the market as a reference for quality, richness and sensorial diversity – reaching high level of recognition and appreciation. Recently, Brazilian legislation authorized the name “alembic cachaça”, which was conditioned exclusively to batch distillation in copper stills. However, the technological advances introduced go beyond the distillation process, and characterize marked differences in relation to industrial cachaça. The objective of this article is to highlight the paradigms of good production practices for still cachaça – with emphasis on the fact that the origin can be attested using chemical markers.
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