QuentãoHot Mulled Cachaça

Festa Junina's Spiced Hot Drink of Ginger, Cinnamon and Cachaça.

• 8 mugs
• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 20 mins
• Sudeste

Quentão — the big hot one — is June in a pot: cachaça steeped with ginger, cinnamon, clove and citrus, ladled steaming at festa junina stalls while the bonfire pops. The non-alcoholic twin is quentão de vinho's quieter cousin; this one is the adult queue.

Ingredients

• •750 ml cachaça
• •500 ml water
• •200 g sugar (or 150 g for a drier quentão)
• •1 thumb fresh ginger, sliced
• •2 cinnamon sticks
• •6 whole cloves
• •1 lime, sliced with peel
• •1 orange, sliced with peel
• •1 pinch fine sea salt

Method

1. Syrup the spicesSimmer the water, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves for 10 minutes into a fragrant syrup — this draws the oils out before any alcohol is in the pot.
2. Add the citrusAdd the lime and orange slices and simmer 5 minutes more.
3. Warm the cachaçaPour in the cachaça, heat until steaming and just trembling — do not let it boil or the alcohol climbs out of the pot
4. Strain and serveStrain into heatproof mugs and serve hot around the fire.

Questions