Savvy Chicago sippers know the difference between margaritas and mojitos. They can debate the merits of a well-made pisco sour. And, without hesitation, will ask bartenders for a caipirinha (that’s ky-ee-pea-REEN-hya) without missing a beat.
Cool drinks with roots in Latin America are this summer’s hot liquid. They are the perfect antidote to the season’s tropical temperatures. And with Nuevo Latino cooking anointed “cuisine of the year” by a national magazine or two, you can bet more and more Chicagoans are sipping the drinks with everything from arepas to yucca.
Is it the citrus-liquor marriage that makes these drinks naturals on sultry summer days? Do we simply love the flavors of cachaca (KAH-sha-sa), the distilled-from-sugar-cane-juice liquor from Brazil? The made-from-grapes aged brandy called pisco (pea-SKOE)? Or rum, that liquor made from sugar cane juice or molasses?
Restaurateurs and bartenders will tell you all these are reasons why they are mixing up record numbers of the mojito (MOE-hee-toe), a Cuban classic mix of rum, lime juice and fresh mint, as well as caipirinhas, Brazil’s cachaca-and-lime drink.
At a couple of eateries visited recently, a run on mojitos depleted the supply of mint leaves. At Nacional 27 on Huron Street, margaritas are the top seller (80 to 100 a night), but mojitos run a close second (60 to 90 a night), followed by caipirinhas, said Ed Culleeney, one of the managing partners: “More people are aware of the mojito than they used to be.”
At Mas on Division Street, wooden pestles called muddlers are lined up along the bar for good reason: Orders for dozens of mojitos are challenging the margarita’s supremacy as the most-requested cocktail. Experts agree that muddlingpressing the limes and mint together to release the oilsis the key to a knockout mojito.
Christine Illman, on a visit from San Franciscoa mojito-challenged town, she notedwas sipping a mojito at Nacional 27. She understands the allure of these Latin American thirst quenchers.
“I had them three years ago at the Mambo Grill,” said Illman, fondly recalling a mojito-making session with friends after her first experience. “There is something about the refreshing taste of mint and sour lime that I like.”
A few stools away, Chris Curran of Chicagoa cachaca convert who used to drink vodka tonics–was sipping a caipirinha. It was during a business trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil, that his hosts urged, “You have to try one of our national drinks.” Curran tasted his first caipirinha, then his second, and his third
“After four or five, you find religion. They creep up on you,” Curran said, laughing.
Chick O’Leary, spirits manager at Schaefer’s Fine Foods, Wines and Spirits in Skokie, is not surprised by the growth in this unofficial cachaca fan club.
“For most of the last couple years, I kept just one (bottle) on the shelf. In the last six months, I have gotten more phone calls on it than in the last four years.” O’Leary said sales have grown from a bottle a month to a case or two a month.
Which delights Marguita Zaretsky, who calls cachaca “the drink of the future” and whose Lincolnwood based-Rio Imports Inc. brings in several brands of Brazilian cachaca. She suggests drinking it on the rocks with a slice of lime. She also brings in Colombian rums and Peruvian pisco brandy.
“Over the past year, there has been a huge consumption of Latin American drinks. They have become more mainstream,” said Susan Frasca, president of Frasca Hospitality, a restaurant group whose Mambo Grill serves mojitos, margaritas, caipirinhas and a house drink called The Mambo.
Interest in these Latin-inspired drinks is so strong that they are being served at hot eateries such as The Hudson Club on Wells Street, not exactly a bastion of plantains and ceviche. Martinis may be a big seller, but Hudson Club bartenders regularly get requests for shaken margaritas as well as mojitos.
“The time is right,” said John Manion, chef and partner of Mas. “Latin culture has come to the forefront in the last few years. It is much more recognized. It touches everyday life, from music to products in grocery stores.”
Call it the Ricky Martin Factor.
That is how one liquor distributor explained this resurgence in such cocktails: Latin American music and dance. He has a point. After dancing the mambo, salsa or merengue, nothing hits the spot better than a cool mojito or any one of the dozens of other tequila concoctions.
“Tequila sales are through the roof,” said Frontera Grill/Topolobampo chef Rick Bayless. “In the 12 years we have been in business, we have gone from 10 tequilas to 65 tequilas.”
While many tequila fans stick to margaritas, Bayless has seen more customers develop a taste for sipping tequilas. “(Customers) even know where it comes from and whether it is a highland or lowland tequila.”
Classic cocktails such as margaritas, mojitos, caipirinhas and pisco sours are at the forefront, but are not the only beverages quenching thirsts. There are dozens of beers and soft drinks (Have you tried Inca Cola?) from Latin America showing up on neighborhood grocery store shelves. At restaurants and snack shops, glass barrels of tart-sweet aguas frescas (roughly translated as “cool waters”) come in pineapple, watermelon, hibiscus and mango flavors, among others. Restaurants keep their electric blenders whirring with batidos and their culinary cousin, licuados (lee-KWA-dose).
At Cafe 28 on Irving Park Road, licuados or batidos may not regularly be on the menu, but owner Berta Navarro will make them–“like a smoothie”–for customers these days when she can get the ripest of fruit.
Those who sell such drinks, mix them, serve them and sip them point to several reasons for the current interest beyond the growing presence of Hispanics in the United States and our appetite for Latin American-inspired food.
Among them: our appetite for travel. Months after toasting a hike on the Inca trail with a pisco sour, or a stroll on the beach at Ipanema with a caipirinha, or a Caribbean honeymoon with a daiquiri, we still have a taste for these drinks.
Finally, such drinks go down pretty easily. “It’s not about acquired taste. It’s about instant gratification,” said John Gomez of Miami-based rum importer Bacardi-Martini USA Inc. “There is also an emotional component that allows you to escape from your everyday. Part of what you’re buying into (with these cocktails) is an emotional element, an essence of escapism and relief.”
Maybe Gomez is onto something. The folks that run hot-trendy Asia de Cuba in L.A. recently opened the Rum Jungle in the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. It offers some 146 rums. Talk about an escape!
CAIPIRINHA
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
Adapted from a recipe by Nacional 27 restaurant.
Rose’s lime juice
Granulated sugar
1 lime, cut in wedges
14 cup lime simple syrup, see recipe
14 cup cachaca
1. Moisten rim of tall tumbler with lime juice; dip rim in sugar.
2. Add lime wedges and syrup to glass. Press limes, using muddler or pestle, to release juice and oils in skin.
3. Add cachaca. Fill glass with crushed ice. Stir.
Nutrition information per drink:
Calories ……….. 375 Fat ………… 0.2 g Saturated fat .. 0 g
% calories from fat .. 1 Cholesterol ….. 0 mg Sodium …….. 5 mg
Carbohydrates ….. 67 g Protein …….. 0.3 g Fiber …….. 0.3 g
SIMPLE SYRUP
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Chilling time: At least 1 hour
Yield: 1 cup
3/4 cup each: sugar, water
Any remaining simple syrup can be refrigerated for up to several weeks.
Heat sugar and water in small, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is completely dissolved, about 10 minutes. Cover; refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.
Variations: To make lime syrup, add zest of 2 limes to warm syrup. Refrigerate zest in syrup until ready to use; strain.
To make mint syrup, substitute mint leaves for zest.
Nutrition information per 1/4 cup:
Calories ……….. 145 Fat ………… 0 g Saturated fat .. 0 g
% calories from fat .. 0 Cholesterol … 0 mg Sodium …….. 2 mg
Carbohydrates ….. 37 g Protein …….. 0 g Fiber ………. 0 g
BATIDA
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
Confectioners’ sugar
Ice cubes
3 tablespoons cachaca
1 to 2 tablespoons bar or simple syrup, see recipe
14 cup fruit juice concentrate: mango, guava or passion fruit
Lime slice
Drink masters at Mas restaurant suggest using one juice or blending your own mix.
1. Dip rim of short tumbler or old-fashioned glass in confectioners’ sugar.
2. Fill shaker with ice. Add cachaca, syrup and fruit juice concentrate. Shake well. Strain into glass over ice. Garnish with lime slice.
Nutrition information:
Calories ……….. 330 Fat ………. 0.2 g Saturated fat .. 0 g
% calories from fat .. 1 Cholesterol … 0 mg Sodium …… 6.2 mg
Carbohydrates ….. 61 g Protein …… 0.8 g Fiber …….. 0.1 g
MOJITO
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
Rose’s lime juice
Granulated sugar
12 mint leaves, plus mint sprigs for garnish
1/2 fresh lime, cut in wedges
1 tablespoon simple syrup, see recipe
1/4 cup cachaca
Crushed ice
Club soda
Adapted from Mambo restaurant.
1. Moisten rim of martini glass with lime juice. Dip rim in sugar.
2. Put mint leaves, lime wedges and syrup in glass. Press mint, lime and syrup together, using muddler or pestle, to release juices and oils.
3. Add rum and crushed ice. Top with club soda; stir. Garnish with mint.
Nutrition information:
Calories ……….. 290 Fat ………… 0 g Saturated fat .. 0 g
% calories from fat .. 0 Cholesterol … 0 mg Sodium ……. 25 mg
Carbohydrates ….. 41 g Protein …… 0.3 g Fiber …….. 0.4 g
THE MAMBO
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
Adapted From Mambo Grill.
1/3 cup each: fresh orange juice, pineapple juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons light rum
1 tablespoon 151-proof rum
Ice cubes
Orange twist, maraschino cherries
Stir together juices and rums in pitcher. Pour into high ball glass filled with ice cubes. Garnish with orange twist and cherries.
Nutrition information:
Calories ……….. 290 Fat ………… 0 g Saturated fat … 0 g
% calories from fat .. 0 Cholesterol … 0 mg Sodium …….. 11 mg
Carbohydrates ….. 24 g Protein …… 0.7 g Fiber ……… 0.4 g
PISCO SOUR
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 drink
1/2 cup ice
3 tablespoons pisco brandy
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
12 egg white, optional
Ground cinnamon, optional
Lime wedge
At the Perez family’s Rinconcito Sudamericano on Armitage Avenue, Dino Perez says this is their most popular alcoholic drink.
Puree all ingredients, except cinnamon, in blender. Pour into glass. Sprinkle top with cinnamon; garnish with lime wedge.
Nutrition information (without egg white):
Calories ……….. 170 Fat ………… 0 g Saturated fat .. 0 g
% calories from fat .. 0 Cholesterol … 0 mg Sodium …….. 0 mg
Carbohydrates ….. 15 g Protein …… 0.1 g Fiber …….. 0.1 g
