Whether you are at a fancy resort on Copacabana’s beachfront or in some hostel in Botafogo you need to know the ins and outs of drinking in Rio. This isn’t for the faint livered traveler with the khaki shorts, camera around your neck and sunscreen on your nose. No I’m talking to you the brave explorer with a liver black as night, rock hard stomach not from crunches but greasy street vendor food that doesn’t resemble what it claims to be and Havaianas on your feet, I’m talking to you.

We shall start where else but the national drink of Brazil, the infamous caipirinha (kai-pee-reen-ya). Every tropical coastal place has some fruity tasty drink that not only has an umbrella in it but should be drunk under one. Now I know this sounds like a frilly fufu drink but trust me this drink is predominantly made with a Brazilian rum like liquor named cachaça made from sugar cane. It is also know as pinga which refers to a guys umm banana in some Spanish slang, so when someone asks you to attend the pinga festival make sure you know if you are talking to a Brazilian or Puerto Rican – otherwise you might be surprised at what pops up. So what exactly is a caipirinha, well it is nothing more than sugar cane sugar, cachaça, crushed limes and ice all mixed together – yet creates something so delicious you will have to order a second and third. If the taste isn’t to your liking at first you can always ask for more sugar and adjust it to fit your taste buds. You can also order straight shots of cachaça but there is a difference between the cachaça that goes in your caipirinha and the cachaça that goes into a shot. If you get confused don’t worry the bartender should be able to assist you, and if not find your closest Brazilian and ask for some help and pay them with a celebratory shot as well.

“No,” you shout, “I’m a man; I make things out of metal and bronze. I don’t drink frilly fufu drinks.” This is an understandable dilemma because if it has sugar added to it and as a man there is no way this is allowed. You take a shot of cachaça straight and need something to wet your pallet, where do you go from here. Well luckily Brazil has a great selection of beers, which most happen to be a pilsner or pale lager beer. In hot temperatures you don’t want a thick and heavy dark beer resting in your stomach. So what do you order, well there is Brahma, Itaipava or Skol these are the three most common beers, Skol being considered the lower level of the three. You can ask for these by name or simply ask for a chopp (schop) which is usually a draft version of these three, in my experience most commonly chopp was Brahma. When you order a chopp expect a thin glass with ice-cold beer, it is as most advertisements claim – refreshing.

You can enjoy your small refreshing chopp, but if your manhood is calling I recommend you find yourself in Botafogo in a marketplace call Cobal. Here there are a few restaurants most of which serve a tower of beer, yup that’s right 3 liters of beer. This is like chopp on steroids. When I ventured into this behemoth of beer with two American soldiers on leave do you think we shared this tower each downing a liter. Ha, no we didn’t and neither shall you. We each ordered a tower, 3 liters apiece, and happily ate our meals which needed an extra table because it got in the way of our beer.

So now you know what to drink it is important that you know one major rule of drinking in Rio clubs. When you enter a club you are given a drink card, now this card has a list of all there drinks and boxes to be checked off for each time you order one. The plus of this is that it makes it easy for you to order your drinks, just point if you can’t pronounce it. It is very important that you don’t loose this card, if you do expect to pay a lot to get out of the club – visa cards accepted. So keep track of your card which can help you keep track of your drinks. You usually have two alternatives to cash out, either there is a person at the door that you pay or at/near the bar someone who cashes you out. It is a simple method as long as you keep track of you card.

Two last tidbits from me to you, if you notice you had one too many while consuming your tower of beer and want to order water there are two options água com gas or água sem gas. It is pretty simple once you understand what they are talking about, but when you are ever so slightly intoxicated it might cause a hang up. Água com gas is carbonated water and água sem gas is not, see I told you it was simple. The other jewel of knowledge I wish to share with you is a great drink I experienced in a town called Buzios, a few hours north of the city of Rio de Janeiro but still in the state of Rio de Janeiro. This drink is called Maracujack with the jack sounding like the French Jacque. Maracuja is Portuguese for passion fruit and the Jack part is for Jack Daniels. You make this drink with passion fruit juice, a shot (or more) of Jack Daniels and a table-spoon of sugar over ice. It sounds like a weird mix but I liked it. This is compliments of The Mix Bar in Buzios, but that is its own story best saved for another day.

Bom Noite!

Since you can’t share a drink with me, share this post with others!

Check out one of these related posts

• The Real Rio
• A Lot O' Lapa
• 2012 A New Beginning

Tags: Beer, Brahma, Brasil, Brazil, Buzios, cachaça, caipirinha, Chopp, Cobal, Cornelius Aesop, Cornelius., Drinking, drinks, Itaipava, Latin America, Mix Bar, Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Skol, South America, The Mix Bar, Travel