This time in Brazil I developed a new appreciation for “caipirinha de maracujá” (“passion fruit caipirinha”). This started when I realized that the plain caipirinha is hardly something I have to come to Brazil for: the cachaça that I brought with me last time was enough to make all the capirinhas we wanted and we even had some left at the end of the year. Caipirinha with passion fruit, however, which is the second most common type of caipirinha in Rio, it seems, is harder to get, since you need not only cachaça, but also fresh passion fruit. And while I might bring more cachaça when I go back, I am unlikely to carry an annual supply of passion fruits.

To bring you some vicarious enjoyment, I got a few passion fruits, some cachaça and experimented at home with making my very own caipirinha de maracujá. So, let’s pretend that you have both cachaça and a passion fruit, and want to make yourself a mean caipirinha. The only two other ingredients you would need are sugar and ice.

So, you open the passion fruit, empty the contents into the glass. (Bars often have a bowl with enough maracujá innards to make a large number of drinks and they just spoon it in.) Then you add sugar – lots (maracujá is quite sour). Then you might want to squish it with a muddler, but I didn’t think it was necessary. Add ice. Mix or shake. Add cachaça. Shake (or mix). Done.

Serve with a short straw. Here it’s actually gets a bit tricky, because the inside of maracujá is full of small seeds that are kind of linked with the pulp. So you get your straw stuck all the time. One day someone will bring boba tea straws to Brazil and make a lot of money.