Tia Marta's cachaça distillery

While up in the mountains in Boa Esperança we drove up a crazy, two-track, washboard dirt road to an “alambique,” a little cachaça-making enterprise. Cachaça is the Brazilian-style “rum” – but DON’T CALL IT RUM! True fire water if there ever was any. It’s made from sugar cane.

Donna Marta, the donna de casa, has been making cachaça for the past thirty years – and I’m here to tell you that her products are top notch!



Donna Marta’s operation is WAY out of the way (like several kilometers past where you think in must be along the road.) When we drove there we were confused but pressed on, following the directions we’d gotten from a local. The only sign indicating the location of an alambique was about 30 feet before her ‘driveway’.



She is very happy to have her little bit of commerce deep in the hills. Donna Marta does not sell her efforts at any other location. (And I’ll bet the government tax man has never been to her place.)

We were especially delighted to see the quality of life for the children living at her sitio.



Here are a few shots of her low-tech but effective operation.






All for the low, low price of just US$3 a fifth! – Cachaça with molasses, cachaça with cinnamon, pure cachaça, cachaça aged in oak, cachaça liqueur with banana, cachaça liqueur with mango – it was crazy!