Properly Sauced: The L-Stop Caipirinha

By L. Stolpman in Food on Feb 23, 2009 8:00PM

The L-Stop, after muddling and being topped off with Cachaça and club soda. See below for the recipe and click on the accompanying pictures for guidance.

Ingredients: Limes, sugar, agave sweetener (available at Trader Joe\'s) - if you can\'t find it, skip it and don\'t fret it. Club soda and Cachaça.

Zest from 5 limes.

Blender with 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 my lime zest in it. You can see that the mixture will clump just slightly from the lime zest oils and the sugar. This stuff smells awesome.

Pile of lime sugar.

Half a lime and my coffee scoop (one ounce) of lime sugar, not packed. I go just shy of a full ounce since I am adding the agave sweetener.

Rimming the glass makes a big difference. You can either dip the glass on a rimmer sponge of lime juice or simply put a small slice in one of your lime pieces, put the lip of the glass in it and rub it along the edge of the glass. Then dip the glass in your lime sugar.

Inside of the glass with 1/2 of a lime, roughly an ounce of lime sugar and a 1/2 tbsp of agave sweetener.

As Chuck kindly pointed out, I competed in Texas de Brazil and Meals on Wheels Chicago's Inaugural Caipirinha contest (and actually won!). My goal was to take what makes a caipirinha awesome and crank up those flavors - hence sugar infused with lime oils from the zest and the addition of the lime juice from those zested limes. Having turned in my drink recipe and instructions a week before the contest, I felt a little..err,..boring when I saw the fantastic ingredients (ginger, cilantro, blood orange juice, strawberries...) in front of the other contestants' stations and realized it was too late to improvise or change directions. After watching me bite my lip worriedly, Chuck reassured me to stick with my game plan and that simplicity was a good thing. So, without further ado, here is the L-Stop Caipirinha recipe:

Ingredients: Each L-Stop Caipirinha contains:

1/2 lime, end cut off and split into four equal pieces
Juice of 1/2 a lime or so
1 ounce of unpacked Lime Sugar (recipe below) - I used a coffee scoop
1/2 tbsp Blue Agave Sweetener (available at Trader Joe's)
2 ounces Cachaça
2 ounces Club Soda (to taste)
lots of ice

Lime Sugar:
Zest of 5 limes
1 cup of sugar

Lime Sugar Directions: Zest the limes (I used a microplaner). Juice the de-zested limes. Place zest and sugar in a small blender or food processor until the sugar is light green and very fine. There will still be small pieces of lime zest visible and it will be just slightly moist/clumpy Makes enough for 6 drinks with leftover to rim the glasses. Place in an air-tight container. Best fresh; use in the next 1-3 days.

Mixing Directions: Rim the glass with lime juice (or rub a lime piece along the rim of the glass) and dip it in the lime sugar. Add lime pieces, lime sugar, and agave sweetener to the glass and muddle the mixture. (I muddled for about 10-15 seconds or so.) Add Cachaça, lime juice and stir. Add ice and top with club soda. Stir and drink.