http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/04/ap/strange/main5524578.shtml#
"What family members didn't know was that Goncalves had spent the night at a truck stop talking with friends over drinks of a sugarcane liquor known as cachaca, his niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper. He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already happening Monday morning."
Cachaça is the principal ingredient in a caipirinha. From my 50+ trips to Brazil, three things stand out in my mind: sultry women, grilled hearts of palm, and caipirinhas, the potently sexy national cocktail. Made of only lime, sugar and cachaça, “capirinha” literally translates into little “hillbilly”. But I like to think of it as liquid love.
Serves 2
1 juicy lime, cut into into 16 pieces, white core removed
2-3 tablespoons granulated sugar
4-6 ounces cachaça (You can substitute vodka for cachaça; just change the name, as do the Brazilians, to “caipiroska”.)
Ice cubes
In a rocks glass, use a “muddler”* or wooden spoon to mash together ½ the lime pieces with half the sugar, extracting as much juice as possible to produce a “syrup”. Add 2-3 ounces of cachaça and stir well to incorporate all of the ingredients together. Fill with ice and enjoy.
*Note: “muddling” is the official name of the process for mashing cocktail ingredients. If you don’t have a “muddler”, akin to a pestle, you can use a wooden spoon instead.