CACHAÇA CARVALHEIRA ALAMBIQUE FREIJÓ

A founder with a background in sugar, alcohol, and brandy worked in various companies. In 1949, he joined Usina Rio Una and by 1961 was director of four factories in the group until 1967. He then led TECAL Tecnologia, managing over 60 businesses in the alcohol, sugar, and brandy sectors in the northeast. After a trip to Cuba in 1993, he suggested to his son that they buy the Cuban Institute for Sugar Cane Derivatives Research. Following a visit to Cuba, his son hired technicians to develop yeasts in Recife. In 1995, they bought European oak barrels and began making their own cachaça. In Recife, Pernambuco, the distillery partnered with a bar chain and opened a location on a mall terrace. This bar served their cachaças, and it was there that I sampled them all. Unfortunately, they were very poor, making me question their authenticity. The surname came from Quinta da Carvalheira in Portugal; the property belonged to the family of Eduardo's great-grandfather, who moved to Brazil as a child. This particular cachaça is aged for 5 years in oak barrels and has 38% ABV. Personal notes: pale greenish-yellow color, alcoholic, vegetal, herbal, bitter, and unbalanced, sadly.