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.

Old Schinus / Valley Queen / Golden Plaything

(The Friday Night Itinerant Itinerary)

Three cachacas firmly struck off the list last Friday night. All of them beauties. Naturally, I put such unerringly fine choices down to my exquisitely good taste.

Field Marshall Mack and I were joined by a Bavarian colleague, Frederick (sic), who is here on short release from the Dublin office.

Frederick has a dark, quasi-Morrissey quiff and a sharp nose that points downwards at a very acute angle. I found him to be an agreeable chap with a refreshingly modest and intelligent manner, quick to make keen observations and, more importantly, happy to join us in our spiritual sugar cane quest. The night's drinking took in the following:

Velha Aroeira
Rainha do Vale
Brinco de Ouro

Each of the above punctuated with multiple glasses of ice cold creamy pilsner served by my favourite waiters in my favourite bar (until now) in all Sao Paulo .

Frederick, who had never before experienced the wonder of pure cachaca, remarked on a family resemblance with his native schnapps which, in my opinion, is merely superficial. I would concede that they are both alcoholic beverages, yes.

Much to our surprise, later in the evening he went on to allege that schnapps is currently illegal in the Republic of Ireland. This demands corroboration as I believe his regular judgement had been severely compromised by a combination of jet lag and intoxication.

I myself got so drunk that alas I am unfit to write a just review of the three aforementioned cachacas. I'm noting them here, however, as a reminder to myself.

Note to self: these cachacas are all of fine quality and are more than worthy of further in depth analyses, perhaps even warranting purchase for future consumption in domicile.

Field Marshall is, as I write this, on her way to India. Which means I am alone until mid November. This will undoubtedly yield some more cachaca reviews and some more home recording.

Adeus amigos/as.
Oh, and flickr is go!

the east/west vine

Girl on the metro soaking up a book of fine wines.
She turns to leave her sleeve unsheathing a tattoo of a corkscrew.

Claudionor: The Continuing Cachaça Crusade

As you may recall, I ended my last, somewhat insistent post, with the promise that I would visit a newly discovered cachaça mecca in the centre of the city. Well, I kept that promise, and in an act of profound preclusion I will spare you immense tedium and simply relate that I made my way all there only to find that the place no longer exists. Damn it all to hell. Why, in the name of the great enchanted ram, is the website still online? Unanswerable questions aside, so as not to be completely undone, I did, without too much trouble, manage to hunt down another small booze emporium in the vicinity. And this excursion yielded a parallel discovery. I now know that this particular part of the centre, around Luz station, is overrun with shoppes supplying the restaurant trade. Places where one can find interesting objects such as swimming pool proportioned bain-maries. This discovery,though intriguing, was vastly incapable of quenching my beastly consumer lust, and, more than a little miffed at not finding my mecca, and thereby not being able to strike at least two bottles of the good stuff off my wish list, I opted to part with a mere R$13.90 (£5.23) for a bottle of Claudionor which I could easily have bought locally:


Here are some facts. Claudionor comes from the town of Januária in the state of Minas Gerais. I have read that Januária was once The Place for cachaça production in Minas but it has now been overshadowed by Salinas (The Islay-a-like region).
It is aged for a year/year and a half in casks of Umburana (aka Amburana) a wood renowned for its low impact on flavour. Amburana is also prized in the production of fine furniture, hence its current scarcity.
Claudionor is 48% vol.
This is a distinctive cachaça. Unlike any other previously imbibed, it sports a dryness and smoothness that belies the high alchol content. It glimmers an extremely pale gold in the glass, teetering on the titillating edges of transparency. One can taste the cane. Major points are scored for the label design and for its ever so low price, being a prime example of a quality cheap cachaça. It wasn't one that I set out to buy, but I'm more than happy to have it in my collection. I think it would go tremendously well with a small portion of pork crackling. However, in the interests my arteries, I generally opt to clear my palate with a handful of Wasabi Peas. I heart Wasabi Peas.