Your questions answered: cachaça

When we work with people from all different areas and interests, we end up talking about a wide variety of things and using the vocabulary specific to each subject.

So, after a student’s visit to Luiz Alves, known as “Terra Nacional da Cachaça,” or “National Cachaça Land,” in the Santa Catarina State, in the south of Brazil, a search in the vocabulary used by people who enjoy drinking (and that’s not me – hehe) was necessary.

As far as I know, the Portuguese word “cachaça” is used in English too. To my surprise, I did some search and found it in the Cambridge Dictionary:

cachaça noun UK  /kəʃæs.ə/ US  /kəʃɑː.sə/ a strong alcoholic drink similar to rum, made in Brazil from the juice of the sugar cane plant

Additionally, I found this information on the English Experts website:

Donay Mendonça says: “Aqui na minha região (Goiás), a palavra cachaça é também usada – informalmente – para se falar de bebida alcoólica em geral, e não somente aguardente. Em inglês, há também um equivalente informal comum para este caso: booze.

Boozealcoholic drinks. [Merriam-webster]

Exemplos de uso:

  • They turn to booze to beat work pressure. [Eles acabam recorrendo à cachaça para superar a pressão do trabalho.]
  • Have you got enough booze for the party? [Vocês tem cachaça suficiente para a festa?]
  • He’s been on the booze (=drinking too much alcohol) for five days. [Ele está afundado na cachaça faz cinco dias.]
  • My husband is now off the booze (=no longer drinking too much alcohol) and he is a different person. [Meu marido agora largou a cachaça e está uma pessoa diferente.]

Only one more finding for cachaça at bab.la, because I believe three results for a search are good enough:

Okay! And cachaça is made in a distillery, not in a brewery! Hehe!

Brewing is the process of producing alcohol by steeping malted grains in hot water to extract the starch and produce a sweet liquid, which then undergoes a fermenting process using yeast. Distillation is the process of purifying a liquid, by heating and cooling.  

So, which one do you prefer? How would you compare beer with spirits?

I’m sure you know what beer means. But what about spirits?

Spirit (noun) is a strong alcoholic drink such as whisky or brandy:

Vodka is a type of spirit.

Spirits are more expensive than beer, but they get you drunk faster.

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