cabana cachaca

Last night at Drink, our neighbor overheard me talking to John Gertsen about some cocktail bitters and infusion ideas. And he later introduced himself as Matti Anttila, founder of Cabana Cachaça. We were curious to hear more about his distillery's process after reading a thread on Chow about the great differences between cachaças themselves and between cachaça and other sugarcane-based spirits such as rums and rhum agricoles. One difference between cachaça and rum is that the former generally uses native Brazilian woods instead of oak for their casks. When I inquired about his aging process, he replied that the liquor is stored in jequitibá wood barrels for 6 months. Soon after, we asked if Matti had a bottle with him, which he did, and he was more than willing to provide a sample for Andrea and I. While neither one of us are experienced cachaça tasters as we are for say gin, it was easy to detect some differences from the other cachaças we have tasted.
His company's cachaça was very smooth without the harshness of some cachaças which Matti attributed to their double pot stilling process instead of column stills. While it was smoother, it was not devoid of flavor. The liquor was sweeter than I remember cachaça tasting and Andrea picked up on some clove and honey notes. She also commented that it was sort of like the sugarcane version bourbon due to the sweeter and marshmallowy flavors she associates with the whiskey. While it would have been good to have a side-by-side comparison of a few cachaças, it was great to taste Cabana and to have such a fortuitous meet-up. Less accidental tastings and meetings can be had at Tales of the Cocktail next month where Matti and the rest of the Cabana crew will be sponsoring and participating in several events. Also, Cabana is not yet available here in Massachusetts but soon will be.