Crystal Caipirinha

We had a very enjoyable evening at a recent Novo Fogo cocktail party with Jacob Grier and Evan Martin behind the bar, making their own, and Dragos Axinte’s cocktails, using Novo Fogo cachaça. Best of the night was Jacob’s Crystal Caipirinha which used clarified lime juice, and sent his cocktail where no caipirinha had gone before. It was crystal clear — no pulp, no sediment, no nothing but pure fresh lime flavor.

Jacob was kind enough to come over and describe the process to clarify the lime juice to us, and the process seemed deceptively simple, so expect to see our experiments with the same in the future. But for the moment, we’re happy to post Jacob’s recipe, and links to the process, so you can start experimenting, too.
 

Recipe: Clarified Lime Juice

 
This process was described to me by Jacob Grier, after I tasted his fantastic Crystal Caipirinha cocktail. We haven’t tried making it yet, because we lack a kitchen scale for the moment, but if you have one please experiment and enjoy.

200g lime juice, freshly squeezed
50g water
0.5g agar agar

You can scale up of course, but it’s hard to scale down with such a small amount of agar.

1. Boil the agar agar in the water briefly to hydrate
2. Whisk mixture into the lime juice.
3. Put into an ice bath or freezer until it sets (less than 20 minutes)
4. Filter through a fine cloth or rinsed coffee filter. Gently squeeze the filter to extract juice, but no so hard that you push any of the agar agar through it.

You should end up with just under 200 g of clarified juice.

Jacob’s recipe is adapted from a method published by Dave Arnold at the French Culinary Institute.

 

Recipe: Crystal Caipirinha (by Jacob Grier)

 
A completely new Caipirinha. This drink is served up and is perfectly clear!

2 oz Novo Fogo Silver Organic Cachaça
1 oz clarified lime juice
0.75 oz simple syrup

1. Stir with ice
2. Strain into chilled cocktail glass
3. Garnish with a lime zest expressed over the drink and dropped in as a twist.