Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Other Cocktails

Batida

By
Alex Frane
A man with dark hair and beard with a long mustache and glasses leans against a gray wall. He is holding a cocktail and wearing a blue shirt with white dots.
Alex Frane
Alex Frane is a freelance writer who has been writing about food, drinks and local culture since 2013, with a primary focus on spirits, cocktails, and bartending. He has interviewed dozens of bartenders from across the country, and visited some of the country’s top cocktail destinations.
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Updated 04/6/22
A double rocks glass rests on a light blue surface. It’s filled with a creamy blended yellow drink and garnished with a pineapple frond and a bamboo-colored straw.

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

Cachaça is Brazil’s official spirit and its top-selling liquor. While it has its own category in Brazil, it is essentially a rum made with pure sugar cane, much like rhum agricole or many of the rums from Guatemala. Cachaça is even sometimes referred to as Brazilian rum and is normally sold without any aging, or aged in neutral metals, so it’s rarely seen as anything but a clear spirit. And, of course, its most famous application is mixed with sugar and lime in a Caipirinha. The Batida demonstrates that the Caipirinha doesn’t have a monopoly on cachaça drinks, though, even in Brazil.

In Portuguese, the word “batida” (pronounced like BAH-chee-da) essentially means shaken or milkshake, and it also encompasses a wide range of drinks. The most defining trait of a batida is cachaça, coconut or fruit (usually passion fruit) and sugar. The cocktail also often includes some kind of condensed milk or coconut milk to make it creamy.

This recipe uses passion fruit, but combines it with sugar in the form of a passion fruit syrup. The syrup from BG Reynolds—a famous line of Tiki syrups—is a reliable choice and is readily available in stores and online markets. The drink also contains coconut, in the form of coconut milk, which is richer than coconut water and leads to a creamier consistency. Fresh lime juice brightens the Batida and adds acidity to balance the syrup and coconut milk.

The Batida can be made by shaking the ingredients with ice and pouring them over fresh ice, and other recipes involve blending it all and serving it as a slushy. This recipe marries the two styles, as you’ll flash-blend the ingredients first, then pour the drink over crushed or pebble ice. The result is creamy, rich, balanced and delightful. It’s a great introduction to Cachaça, and deserves its place along with the Caipirinha in the Brazilian cocktail hall of fame.

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces Novo Fogo silver cachaça
  • 1 ounce BG Reynolds passion fruit syrup
  • 1/2 ounce coconut milk
  • 1/2 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
  • Garnish: pineapple leaf
  • Garnish: grated nutmeg

Steps

  1. Add the silver cachaça, passion fruit syrup, coconut milk and lime juice into a blender with 3/4 cup of ice and blend until smooth.

  2. Pour into a rocks glass.

  3. Garnish with a pineapple leaf and grated nutmeg.

  4. Serve with a straw.