Weekend Away For Orr

My land escape. Fire at base of it.

May rain's day a spelling.
Go to loose ford, suns up lie for four load.
Knows but no seen.

Spaataakaataaken
Okokioki
Naa se senessen

K.S.K. (Josky Kiambukuta)

I swear Kiambukuta - you should thank God for giving you such a gift - that voice can surely calm a nasty beast!! I saw a picture of you smoking, please for all our sakes, I hope you don't anymore. I'd hate to see you being robbed of that voice. Where do you play these days? Even if it's on the Moon, I'll be there. God bless!
Jsemanda 10 months ago


@Jsemanda - If he did not smoke, his voice might not have been that good!!!
AboubacarSiddikh 10 months ago

What people are saying:

Oh but the list insists

Now I don't usually like to name names, but the inspiration behind those of cachaça is tremendously varied, and I felt I should share some of that myriad diversity with you. Where appropriate, I have translated into English and imprisoned in parenthesis.

Cachaças are and have been named after:

Soap Operas
Children's Stories
Allusions to Macumba
Political Elections (1982)
Card Games
The Racing of Horses
The Game of Football
Mammals (Little Horse/Black Horse/Panther/Wee Jaguar/Wee Sloth/Wee Armadillo)
Birds (3 Herons/Falcon of the Valley)
Fish (Piranha/Giant Amazonian Catfish)
Reptiles
Crustaceans (Mouth of the Soft-shelled Crab)
Insects
Plants, Flowers & Fruit
Nobility & Orders
Celebrities
Styles of Music from Brasil
Numbers
Vessels or Casks
City/Town/Village Names
Plains, Valleys and Ridges
Farms
Indigenous Indian Groups
Saints
Brazilian Ethnic Groups
Emotions & Sentiments (Avarice/Shame/Shameless)
Types of Women (Old Black Lady/Lady Lover/Dreamer Girl/Widowed Cane/Wee Granny)
Women's Names
Men's Names
Professions (Barman/Farmer/Sailor/Mountaineer/Harpooner)
Consequences (Good Luck/Triumph/Fame/Victory/Trouble)
Slang Words
Properties of Cachaça Itself
Original Made up Names (The End of the Century/Baldy/Seductive Smile/Poor Man's Umbrella)
Allusions to Sex and Sexual Betrayal (Dying Erection/Getting Wood/Bride's Sweat/If the Wife Found Out/In the Ass/Give Me More/From The Head Down/Cuckold's Consolation)

Serra de Areia (Ridge of Sand)

Field Marshall was gifted this bottle a few years back. It lay dormant for perhaps as long as three years until around the time that my love for cachaça began to truly grow and frankly it's a miracle there's still any left.

What little I can say based on objective evidence, comes solely from the label. There is no website. I haven't found a single review, nor have I been able to find a seller online. Well now that's my kind of marketing.

The label, as ever, imparts all the information we need to know that this is at least a genuine, if not a good, cachaça:

It is 40% proof, and thus sits comfortably within the 38-48% parameters.
It is distilled from the fermented must of sugar cane.
The product is registered as a tax paying enterprise as witnessed by the CNPJ number required by legitimate business In Brazil.
A phone number and email address are also included.
Dare I write or call the number for further information?

The label states that this cachaça comes from the Northeastern state of Paraiba.
From the municipality of Areia to be precise.

Ever since a previous trip i took around the sertão of Alagoas, another northeastern state, I have wanted to visit the state of Paraiba and travel inland there. I'm not entirely sure what it is that draws me, but I know that one day I will go and whatever happens there will be very, very good indeed. I have come to realise that the Paraibans know more than a thing or two about making fine cachaças and I recently discovered that there may be as many as 60 active production sites in the state. Serra de Areia will most certainly not be the last cachaça I discuss here from this region.

So what can be said empirically?
As you may just be able to determine from the photos above, Serra de Areia is not totally transparent but in fact a very pale gold. From this we can tell that it is aged in wood, but we may only guess at the type and the time frame. It is a little dry to the taste, slightly aromatic, but not smooth, so I'm guessing oak was not involved and it's not fragrant and floral enough to have been aged in balsam. Perhaps an endemic wood of some sort. Whatever the case, it's damn good cachaça.