Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Brazil's Caipirinha Guidelines

Now this is governmental action I can fully support:

Brazil's government has published legal guidelines for the popular caipirinha, the most common and extended alcoholic drink of the 190 million population country, and which becomes mandatory as of this month.[...] The purpose of the bill is to establish the guidelines of “identity and quality” to which all caipirinha elaborated in Brazil for domestic consumption or export must abide.
This may seem like a silly thing for governments to be doing, particularly when your military and police forces are out of control, but it's actually a small-but-decent thing the government can do without too much difficulty or effort. Caipirinhas in Brazil are generally delicious, but it's not completely uncommon to come across some that are extremely weak and watered down, or to find cachaca that's clearly not made the way it's supposed to be and whose taste reveals this. This bill seems to address that issue. Additionally, I suppose it's good to try to regulate and make uniform the packaging of cachacas (buying cachaca in a syringe??!?).

Anyhow, the difference between a good caipirinha and a "not good" caipirinha is actually enormous, and I agree with the bill and the Ministry of Agriculture that those who make "illicit caipirinhas" should most certainly be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.