Must Try Cachaça Brands

Produced in São Paolo at the IRB Tatuzhinho 3 Fazendas Distillery, this is their Tradicional expression. It is double-distilled and aged for an unspecified amount of time in large oak vats before bottling.

Brazilian-made Yaguara Cachaça (the name is Portuguese for "jaguar") is a blend of spirits distilled from raw sugarcane juice overseen by Master Blender Erwin Weimann. This triple-filtered, organic white cachaça first launched in 2013 and debuted in the US a year later. Inspiration for the unique bottle design was drawn from the sidewalks of Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, interpreted by UK-based glass artist Brian Clarke.

Master Distiller Gilles Merlet approaches the distillation of Leblon’s ubiquitous flagship cachaça as if it were a fine French wine. Freshly-cut sugarcane is gently pressed, then the juice is fermented for 20-24 hours and distilled in alembic copper pot stills. The cachaça rests for up to six months in XO cognac casks from France.

The certified organic sugarcane is grown at the Novo Fogo estate in Morretes, Paraná, which is mere steps away from the coastal rainforest, Floresta Atlântica. The fresh cane juice is immediately fermented over 18 hours and given a single-distillation in pot stills. It's rested a year in stainless steel, with no filtration. Fun fact: The bottle design is curvy to represent the company's commitment to preserving nature, which has no perfectly straight lines.

Launched in time for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio, Yaguara (Portuguese for "jaguar") Branca was conceived by Master Blender, Erwin Weimann, and Jean Ponce, brand consultant and former bartender of D.O.M. in Saõ Paulo. It is bottled unaged at 40.5% ABV with a glass design by UK-based artist Brian Clarke.

One of Brazil’s only female cachaça distillers, Katia Espírito Santo, oversees a sustainable distillation process that begins with the sugarcane that’s grown without pesticides and hand-harvested at her farm, Fazenda da Quinta in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The cane is crushed by a spring-fed water wheel and the fermented juice is distilled in copper pot stills. Avuá Cachaça Prata is rested in stainless steel tanks for six months before being hand-bottled.

Novo Fogo Chameleon is an ode to one of the most beloved creatures of the Brazilian rainforest, for which Novo Fogo's zero-waste facility is deeply committed. Their cachaça is aged for one year in Four Roses bourbon barrels that have been disassembled, sanded out and lightly re-toasted. The cachaça is bottled without filtration.

Named for trees that are indigenous to South America, Avuá Cachaça Amburana begins in the single-estate sugarcane fields of Fazenda da Quinta, a family-owned farm located about four hours north of Rio de Janeiro. The hand-cut sugarcane is ground with a waterwheel to extract the juice, which is fermented for less than 24 hours using airborne wild yeasts and distilled in an alembic copper pot still. The cachaça rests for up to two years in casks made from Amburana wood.