A Casa de Bebidas Fortes

I am heading to New Hampshire in a few hours to hang out with some old college pals. I've never been to New Hampshire and I'm very happy to be giving my money to the state after they showed The Gays some love yesterday and legalized same-sex marriage. The law doesn't take effect until January 1, 2010 so I won't be getting married this weekend which is probably a relief to Luisa since she's not actually going with me on this little trip. So, what will I be doing in New Hampshire? Well, I'm not exactly sure but there will be cocktails and pinatas. What more could a person want? Well, maybe this...

I think I am going to like this New Hampshire place. 

It's almost 6:30 a.m. here in Minnesota and I've got cocktails on the brain (not literally people, I'm drinking coffee as I type this). So, let's talk Caipirinha! Caipirinha is a Brazilian cocktail made with lime juice, sugar, cachaça and ice. What is cachaça you ask? Well, it is a type of alcohol made from sugar cane. According to the Field Guide to Cocktails by Rob Chirico, the word "caipirinha" translates roughly as "yokel". It turns out you can take the girl out of Kansas, educate her, partner her with a European, teach her to drink fancy drinks and still...she's a yokel. That seems about right. The field guide goes on to say this about the drink: "The Caipirinha is drunk from lunch until bedtime, which may come sooner than anticipated." That too seems about right.

I did not learn to make a caipirinha from the field guide, however. I learned to make them in 1997 during my first trip to Portugal with Luisa. We stayed with her grandparents who were big fans of cocktail hour and Luisa's grandfather taught me to make them - a memory I will treasure forever. You can find recipes online for this potent drink but I thought you might like to check out our family recipe, so, I made a video. A couple of warnings:

• The glass was too big and the drink was too strong since I don't measure the cachaça.
• That fancy cocktail word that means "smash up the lime" is "muddle".
• You don't have to use superfine sugar. I just had some and sometimes I think it dissolves easier.
• The night before I made this video, I had gone to a concert with my friend Brian and had a bit too much to drink. I did not want a caipirinha but it was the only time I could film this educational video. So, I didn't have access to my best drink-making self.

I am leaving today and won't be back until late Sunday evening...and...I'm NOT taking my laptop. I sure hope the internet will still be here when I return. I will still be on Twitter so check in there from time to time to see what sort of trouble we're getting into...New Hampshire may never be the same.