{"id":409482,"date":"2021-09-20T16:33:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T19:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=409482"},"modified":"2021-09-20T16:33:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T19:33:44","slug":"perfecting-the-art-of-cachaca-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/perfecting-the-art-of-cachaca-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfecting the art of cacha\u00e7a making"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like colonel Aureliano Buend\u00eda, a character in Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez\u2019s (1927\u20132014) masterwork One Hundred Years of Solitude<\/em>, who fought 32 revolutions and lost them all, Jo\u00e3o Manso Pereira (175?\u20131820), a Latin grammar teacher and self-taught chemist, developed a series of improvements to cacha\u00e7a production methods that were all rejected by Brazil\u2019s conservative colonial cacha\u00e7a makers. Born in either Minas Gerais or Rio de Janeiro, and described by historians as \u201ca tall, thin mulatto,\u201d he devised an improved still ideally suited for distilling sugarcane spirits. Although he never lived to see his ideas implemented commercially, many of them proved to be useful centuries later. He also experimented with many of the alternative raw materials, such as fruits, that are now used for the production of special spirits.<\/p>\n

In present-day Ilha do Governador, Pereira discovered a white, kaolin-rich clay which he used to made crockware, porcelain, and small sculptures called cameos. He sent Queen Maria I of Portugal (1734\u20131816) a bust of herself made of white clay, and another of her husband, Dom Pedro III (1717\u20131786). In 1793, the queen sent a letter thanking him and another to the viceroy of Brazil, Jos\u00e9 Lu\u00eds de Castro (1744\u20131819), ordering him to give the chemist all necessary support to pursue his projects, in violation of her own decree which banned manufactories in Brazil.<\/p>\n

In his book, Mem\u00f3ria sobre a reforma dos alambiques ou de um pr\u00f3prio para a destila\u00e7\u00e3o das aguardentes<\/em> (Essay on the development of stills specially designed for producing sugarcane spirits), published in Lisbon in 1797, Pereira criticized the methods used by master distillers such as French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal (1756\u20131832), arguing that sugarcane distillation did not need to be as lengthy a process as then believed. The word \u201cpinga<\/em>\u201d or \u201cdrip,\u201d a popular term for cacha\u00e7a in Brazil, derives from the fact that the diaphanous liquid would slowly drip into a container after being purified.<\/p>\n

In his book, Pereira described a still with different dimensions from those used at the time. Stills, or alembics, were first invented by chemists in Alexandria, Egypt, between 200 and 300 AD, and were originally made of clay. A typical still has four main parts: a vessel where the fermented sugarcane juice is boiled, called the cucurbit; an outlet from the cucurbit, called the still head; a connection through which the evaporated alcohol rises, called the swan neck; and a coil through which the vapor condenses and becomes liquid.<\/p>\n

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Reproduced from Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira<\/span><\/a> The cover and an illustration of an experimental still in the book published by Jo\u00e3o Manso Pereira in 1797Reproduced from Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Pereira proposed a narrower head and the use of cold water to cool the vapor, which would return to the boiler before flowing through the passage. He believed these modifications could improve the separation of unwanted components, which would more easily pass through a wider aperture. \u201cThe extensive experiments I carried out with a small still, which I had made for this purpose, showed me that the immersion of the swan neck in cold water slows the distillation process by removing needed heat,\u201d he argues in the book.<\/p>\n

He proposed that the coil should have a smaller diameter and fewer turns, and be immersed in cold water. \u201cModern stills use tubular condensers rather than coils, which are continuously immersed in chilled water,\u201d says crop scientist Andr\u00e9 Ricardo Alcarde, who heads the Spirits Technology and Quality Laboratory at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (ESALQ-USP). \u201cJo\u00e3o Manso combined his theoretical and practical knowledge to develop a modern still design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another idea of his that was only adopted many years later was that the cucurbit should be made of cast iron and the other parts of pure tin, to avoid contaminating the spirits with copper oxides. \u201cToday\u2019s stills are often made of stainless steel precisely to avoid contaminants,\u201d says Alcarde. \u201cBut the apparatus cannot be entirely made of stainless steel. Having at least some copper parts is important to remove sulfur compounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Reproduced from Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira<\/span><\/a> A colonial still made of soapstone at Museu da Inconfid\u00eancia, in Ouro PretoReproduced from Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In another book, Mem\u00f3ria sobre o m\u00e9todo econ\u00f4mico de transportar para Portugal a aguardente do Brasil com grande proveito dos fabricantes e comerciantes<\/em> (Essay on economic methods of transporting Brazilian spirits to manufacturers and merchants in Portugal), published in Lisbon in 1798, Pereira argues that merchants could spend less on freight if they shipped more concentrated spirits to be diluted in Lisbon. He also experimented with alternative types of wood for making cacha\u00e7a barrels, as the ones used at the time were prone to leakage. \u201cToday the choice of wood is primarily a concern at the maturation stage,\u201d says Alcarde. \u201cCacha\u00e7a acquires its yellow, brown or green hues from reactions with the barrel wood, just as with whiskey and brandy. Without this step, all distillates are colorless.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Pereira\u2019s innovations were met with opposition. \u201cWe know of no instances where his propositions were ever implemented,\u201d notes Carlos Alberto Lombardi Filgueiras, a chemist and historian at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, who authored the book, As origens da qu\u00edmica no Brasil<\/em> (The origins of chemistry in Brazil; Editora da Unicamp, 2015). \u201cCacha\u00e7a makers were very conservative and reluctant to try anything new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pereira also ventured into other areas of chemistry. In Angra dos Reis, a coastal town in the state of Rio de Janeiro, he suggested to the vicar that the town\u2019s graveyards could be used to extract nitrate\u2014a compound formed by nitrogen and oxygen from decomposing cadavers\u2014for the production of gunpowder. He claimed preliminary experiments had been successful. The townspeople, however, protested that the dead should be left in peace and his idea was never implemented.<\/p>\n

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Carlos A. L. Filgueiras\u2009\/\u2009UFMG<\/span><\/a> A copper still at Museu de Artes e Of\u00edcios, in Belo HorizonteCarlos A. L. Filgueiras\u2009\/\u2009UFMG<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In another mission, he was commissioned to evaluate the feasibility of producing iron from ore bodies in Ara\u00e7oiaba da Serra, a municipality near Sorocaba, in southeastern Brazil. \u201cIn 1802, he carried out several experiments and confirmed that the ore was commercially viable, but he was overly optimistic,\u201d says Fernando Gomes Landgraf, a professor of metallurgical engineering in the Polytechnic School at USP.\u00a0Experimental production proved unsuccessful. \u201cIt is a common mistake among chemists to believe they will be able to reproduce their experiments at scale,\u201d says Filgueiras. \u201cYou can\u2019t simply multiply the reagents by 10 or 100, as the proportions and reaction conditions change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pereira also translated and published the book, M\u00e9moire sur une nouvelle m\u00e9thode distillatoire appliqu\u00e9e \u00e0 la distillation des eaux-de-vie et \u00e0 celle de la mer <\/em>(Essay on a new distillation method applied to the distillation of spirits and seawater), published in 1805 in Lisbon. In the footnotes, he noted points on which he disagreed with the author, the French chemist Jean-Baptiste Fran\u00e7ois Rozier (1734\u20131793), and described discussions he had had about distillation methods at the Rio de Janeiro Literary Society, of which he was a member. In one footnote, he also described a study published by Brazilian physician Jos\u00e9 de Pinto Azeredo (176?\u20131810) in Jornal Encyclopedico de Lisboa<\/em>, in March 1790, in which he described the first measurements on record of changes in oxygen levels between more built-up areas and areas with more tree canopy in Rio de Janeiro. Pereira added so many footnotes that the page count in the translated edition nearly doubled.<\/p>\n

Historians have yet to reach a consensus on where and when the first cacha\u00e7a was produced in Brazil. Its origin has been ascribed to at least three different regions and periods: the feitorias<\/em>, or trading posts, of Igarassu and Itamaraca\u0301 island in Pernambuco, between 1516 and 1526; the seaside town of Porto Seguro, Bahia, in 1520; and S\u00e3o Vicente, a coastal town in present-day S\u00e3o Paulo State, between 1532 and 1534. In 1649 the Crown banned the selling of cacha\u00e7a\u2014then known as \u201choney wine\u201d\u2014when it began to out-compete wine and grape brandy brought from Portugal and even to be used as a surrogate currency in the colony. In his doctoral thesis, completed in 2005 at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Alex Varela, a professor of history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, described how Brazilian cacha\u00e7a became an important currency in African slave markets in the seventeenth century. \u201cIn Angola,\u201d he notes, \u201ccacha\u00e7a became a popular replacement for African beers and malafo<\/em>, a fermented spirit used in religious rituals, known to the Portuguese as \u201cpalm wine\u201d as it was produced from different types of palm trees.<\/p>\n

Cacha\u00e7a\u2014then known by the name of \u201ccaga\u00e7a<\/em>\u201d or \u201cfroth\u201d\u2014was a spirit generally associated with African slaves. \u201cFearing civil disturbances caused by drunkenness, the Crown attempted to curb drinking among slaves, but largely ignored the drunken excesses of farmers themselves,\u201d says Lucas Endrigo Brunozi Avelar, a historian at the State University of Roraima. But the Portuguese government eventually used taxes on cacha\u00e7a to offset lost revenue from mining, explains Avelar. \u201cIn the nineteenth century, farm management handbooks recommended distributing cacha\u00e7a after a day\u2019s work and before the rollcall, in order to keep the peace in the slave quarters,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Gerhard Waller\u2009\/\u2009ESALQ-USP <\/span><\/a> A pilot distillation apparatus at ESALQ-USPGerhard Waller\u2009\/\u2009ESALQ-USP <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

There were many other popular uses for the spirit\u2014which is 98% water and ethanol, with the remaining 2% comprising around 300 different substances; cacha\u00e7a\u2019s flavor derives from compounds such as acetic acid and isoamyl alcohol, while its fruity and floral aroma is produced by ethyl acetate. Known in Brazil by nicknames such as \u201cwater that birds won\u2019t drink,\u201d \u201cwhite coffee,\u201d caninha<\/em>, marvada,<\/em> and m\u00e9<\/em>\u2014among 400 other nicknames cataloged on the Mapa da Cacha\u00e7a<\/em> website<\/a> \u2014cacha\u00e7a was believed to be a potent remedy for a variety of ailments. It was used to treat fever and shaking chills caused by malaria, to clean wounds, to counter the effects of snakebites, to keep warm on cold days and cool on warm days, as an offering to deities or spirits, and to cheer parties.<\/p>\n

The methods for distilling cacha\u00e7a have changed little over the last five centuries, but enough to reduce production time from three days to just four hours. In 2019, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Food Supply (MAPA) recorded 951 registered cacha\u00e7a producers, largely (44%) in Minas Gerais, and 3,648 registered brands of Brazil\u2019s most widely consumed spirit (with beer remaining the most widely consumed fermented beverage). Although used synonymously, the terms cacha\u00e7a<\/em> and aguardente<\/em> refer to different spirits. Under a law enacted in 2006, cacha\u00e7a must have an alcohol content of 38%\u201348% by volume at 20 degrees Celsius, while aguardente<\/em> has an alcohol content of 38%\u201354%.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s cacha\u00e7a producers still value tradition but are more open to innovation in the production process,\u201d says Alcarde. Double distillation, for example, has been a welcome improvement to eliminate chemical contaminants and reduce the content of an undesirable compound, ethyl carbamate. \u201cTen years ago, the regulatory limit for carbamate was higher than for most spirits,\u201d he says. Since 2012, Alcarde has administered training programs on production techniques at ESALQ, attended by cacha\u00e7a makers.<\/p>\n

There is still room for further improvement in production methods, explains Alcarde, who is currently doing research to select new yeast strains for fermentation, a critical process stage in which alcohol and other compounds that impart flavor and texture are produced. \u201cIf we\u2019re successful,\u201d he says, \u201cthe fermentation process will become much more consistent, preventing variance in product quality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How a self-taught chemist helped to improve cacha\u00e7a production techniques in the late eighteenth century","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":409664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[259],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-409482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retrospect","tag-chemistry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410243,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409482\/revisions\/410243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409482"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=409482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}