I developed a fondness for Jorge Amado in Paraty! Not the writer, but the cocktail. (I’ll tell you what the author Jorge Amado is all about afterwards). Few drinks embody the taste of summer, the sea and palm trees so much. If you like caipirinha anyway, you’ll love Jorge Amado as a caipirinha alternative. And so that you too can bring a little bit of Brazil home with you, I have brought you the recipe from Paraty.
Tips for a good Jorge Amado
The right sugar
I don’t know why this misconception is still so widespread, but a caipirinha isn’t made with brown sugar. The same goes for the Jorge Amado, which is basically just a variation of the caipirinha. In Brazil, they don’t use brown sugar in caipirinhas!
Conventional white sugar is used, but this is typically always obtained from sugar cane and has a slightly different taste to our household sugar. However, white cane sugar is now also very easy to find here, e.g. at dm or in organic markets. By the way, sugar is not spared: Jorge Amado as well as “normal” Caipirinha are drunk super sweet in Brazil!
The right passion fruit
Brazilian passion fruit is really hard to find in Germany! Unfortunately for me, because I’m really addicted to it. Passion fruit in Brazil is much larger, elongated, yellow, relatively sour and very intense. If you eat too much passion fruit, you will get tired quite quickly, as it has a sleep-inducing effect.
In our latitudes you are more likely to find the small purple ones, if at all. These have less flesh, so you will need to use two fruits for the recipe above.
The main ingredient: Gabriela
Gabriela is the signature cachaça from Paraty. Unlike conventional sugar cane schnapps, Gabriela is also infused with cinnamon and cloves, which makes Jorge Amado particularly aromatic.
Outside of Paraty, gabriela is rarely available in stores in Brazil (or here), but thanks to the internet you can have the main ingredient for the Jorge Amado delivered directly to your home!
Jorge Amado: Cocktail from Paraty, Brazil
- Wooden mortar
- 1 lime
- 1 yellow passion fruit ((if you use purple ones, use two!))
- 4 cl Gabriela
- 2 tsp white cane sugar
- Crushed ice
Dice the limes and pour into a large caipirinha glass.
Halve the passion fruit, place the flesh in the glass and add the sugar.
Pour over the gabriela.
Crush with a wooden mortar until the juice comes out of the lime pieces.
Fill the glass completely with ice and stir with a long cocktail stick or stirring spoon. Cheers!
You can find out more about Paraty, its beautiful old town and dreamlike surroundings with secluded islands and waterfalls in the middle of the jungle here:
The ultimate Paraty Travel Guide
The story behind Jorge Amado
Jorge Amado is one of Brazil’s most important authors. His works are often set in Bahia, are very passionate and deal with social injustice and the Brazilian attitude to life. The book Gabriela like Cinnamon and Cloves* was filmed in Paraty decades ago. Paraty used to be an important center of sugar cane cultivation and still has many disceries today. This is how the special Cachaça Gabriela, a sugar cane schnapps with cinnamon and cloves, was created.
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