AVUÁ Amburana Cachaça Review | Brazil's Best Kept Spirit?

[00:00:00] If you've been watching this channel for a while, you know, I spend most of my time talking about tequila and agave spirits. And every once in a while I run across another spirit that I think deserves a little bit closer look. Today I found one of those bottles. This is Avoir Ambarana Cachaca. Now that's a mouthful. Here's something that caught my attention right away. The owner behind Paladar is one of the owners of this brand as well. So if you watch me do a Paladar review, you already know they're committed to traditional production and quality. But this isn't tequila. It's Kachasa. Kasp Cachaca is a Brazilian spirit. It's actually the national spirit of Brazil. And if you've never had one, it's something completely different that I definitely think you should try. A lot of people say that cachaca is just Brazilian rum, but it's really not the case. Rum typically is made from molasses, which is a byproduct of sugar production. Cachaca is distilled from fresh pressed sugar cane juice, Kind of like how tequila is made from fresh agave rather than a processed product. In fact, cachaca has been around since then 1500s, making it one of the oldest distilled spirits in the Americas. It's deeply rooted in Brazilian culture, and once you understand how it's made, you realize every bit of it is traditional and as regional as tequila. Now, this brand itself, it's only been around a little over a decade. Launching in the early 2010s, it is produced by the Fazenda de Quente, a family distillery that has been making cachasa for more than 100 years. So this likens back to Paladar in the same way. A brand that's only been around maybe a decade or so, but made by the Orendine family since, since the early 1900s. The production is something I think all tequila nerds can appreciate. They grow their own sugar cane on a single estate. They hand harvest it, then they press it within a few hours of the cane being harvested so it stays as fresh as possible. They even use a traditional water wheel powered mill to crush the cane. From there, it's fermented from wild yeast for about 24 hours before distilling it one time in a traditional copper pot. Still, no giant column stills here, just small batch old school craftsmanship. See, sounds pretty familiar when we talk about all the additive free and traditional tequilas that we talk about on the show. Now, what makes this stand Out. And what made me order it at the bar in Indianapolis was this one has been aged for two years in ambarana wood, which if you've seen my tequila reviews, you've probably heard me talk about these barrels before. And instead of aging in American or French oak, this spirit spends time in those barrels. Made from the ambarana tree, which is native to South America, the wood is famous for producing notes like cinnamon, vanilla, baking spices, toasted coconut, clove, caramel, even a little sweet tobacco. It's one of the most unique barrel influences you'll ever experience. It's completely different than your typical old profiles. And it has made some of my favorite tequilas and agave distillates. Okay, enough talking about it. Let's get it in a glass and taste it. [00:02:39] Like I said, I was at the Bimberg, which is a speakeasy here in town, and they do have their carryout license as well. I tasted it and said, I want a bottle of that. It also is very inexpensive. I believe this bottle was under $40. All right, let's dive into the notes. Okay, it's that it's like a cinnamon bun with these other like notes that jump out. There's like that clove that I mentioned earlier. So got like a green note. There's some baking spices, there's a little bit of vanilla, but it does really give me that same note of cinnamon and Cinnabon that I get in the tequilas aged in the same wood. Okay, let's dive in. Yeah, it's really good. Cinnamon, vanilla, something green, something vegetal. There's a really nice sweetness. There's a nice minerality of some kind in there too. Not like we get in tequila where it's like real earthy, but there's almost like a, like an iron type note in the taste. Gotta say, that's delicious. And I would sip on it all day long. It does have a really cool finish to it too. It's like a spice, like a baking spice finish where maybe it's that cinnamon that's just kind of like heating up similar to maybe like a red hot, but not actually that sweetness of a red hot, just that feeling in your mouth. So when you think about it, tequila people should be into this. They respect tradition. It's a state grown sugar cane. It's traditional fermentation, copper pot distillation. Sounds like they're using what's similar to a roller mill to extract the juice. So it really does lean into that real production of how you make tequila. So if you're a tequila fan looking to branch out to something that has some craftsmanship that you might appreciate. I'm going to say look for this and if you can find it, it's something definitely worth tasting. It takes you outside of that tequila comfort zone, but still leans into some amazing flavor. So let me know if you've ever had a cachasa. If you've tried anything else that's aged in Ambarada wood, I'd like to hear from you. Thanks for watching. Click that like subscribe Share button. Cheers. Have a fantastic evening.