Avuá Cachaça, the leading artisanal, single-sourced cachaça brand, introduces a new expression to its range of hand-crafted cachaças named after the homegrown woods they are aged in – Avuá Bálsamo Aged Cachaça . Aged over one year in high density bálsamo wood casks native to South and Central America. Avuá Bálsamo Aged Cachaça is available in select markets nationwide for $49.99.
Situated in the hills of Carmo near Rio de Janeiro, Avuá Cachaça begins in the single-estate sugarcane fields of a small, family-owned farm, produced by one of Brazil’s few female distillers and using a family recipe honed over three generations. Avuá Bálsamo Aged Cachaça is aged for up to two years in burgundy-colored bálsamo hardwood harvested from trees with a height that ranges from 65-98 feet and a trunk measuring 24-35 inches in diameter. These tall trees with a fine grain imparts herbaceous aromas and slightly astringent flavors. The medium to fine texture grain is interlocked with lighter golden brown to a burgundy property.
“Avuá Cachaça’s seven offerings and various indigenous wood aging experiments were created to challenge the perception of the cachaça category,” says Pete Nevenglosky, co-founder of Avuá Cachaça. “Bálsamo hardwood can be found from southern Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul and imparts a truly unique flavor profile to the American spirits landscape. The thoughtful selection of this type of wood for Avuá’s Bálsamo Aged Cachaça was made with the bartender in mind, designed to offer unique flavors for adventurous cocktail applications and pairings.”
Avuá Bálsamo Aged Cachaça is 40% ABV and produced in large vertical casks and aged over one year. The bálsamo wood harvested from tall trees with a fine grain imparts a complex, herbaceous aroma with a flavor that hints at minerality, citrus and bitterness. Enjoy in classic cachaça cocktails such as a Rabo de Galo, herbaceous gin-based cocktails or sipped neat. Additionally, pair a neat pour with a cold beer to experience a tabelinha by alternating sips of cachaça and beer, inspired by the back and forth of a soccer ball between two players often seen on the beach in Ipanema Beach in Rio.
Organically produced with only renewable energy, Avuá Cachaça uses water piped from a natural source to grind the sugarcane and a boiler for the still is fired by the residuals of the sugarcane pulp, known as bagasse. Sugarcane-based spirits, such as cachaça exhibit more terroir as the juice pressed directly from sugarcane is used for fermentation and distillation. The cane, composed of four specifically chosen varietals, is hand-cut, ground with a waterwheel, and fermented for less than 24 hours using airborne wild yeasts, before being distilled in a copper-crafted alembic still.
Avuá Cachaça continues to be heralded by spirits critics for its depth of flavor and coveted by leading bartenders for its versatility in cocktails.
The complete Avuá Cachaça collection includes: Avuá Prata Cachaça (the unaged 84 proof version), Avuá Still Strength Cachaça (one of the highest proof cachaças available in America), Avuá Amburana Cachaça (the only cachaça available in America aged in Amburana wood, found only in the forests of South America), Avuá Oak Cachaça (aged in French Oak casks for up to two years following Brazilian tradition), Avuá Jequitibá Rosa Cachaça (first of its kind in the United States) and Avuá Tapinhoã Cachaça (the only cachaça available in America aged in a recommissioned barrel of Tapinhoã wood).
