Cocktail of the Month – August 2026

by | Aug 6, 2026 | Cocktail of the Month | 74 comments

Summer is wrapping up, schools are starting back up, but let’s not say goodbye to summer yet. I’ve realized I’ve been going gin heavy with the cocktails of the month, which some people may not enjoy as much as I do, so we’ll pivot to a drink made with cachaça (a distilled spirit made from sugar cane, part of the rum family but not rum). At least here in Ohio, there’s not a lot of options, as there’s only 4 available in the state.

Lime, sugar, cachaça.

The Origin

There’s no documentation for the creation of the drink, but it has been traced back to the 1910s. Originally, the recipes were all over the place, with various herbal and folk remedy ingredients as it was used as a healing tonic or to help people recover from illness. The drink evolved into the current incarnation of lime, sugar, and cachaça.

The Recipe

The current modern evolution of the recipe is simple and easy:

  • 1 lime, cut into wedges
  • 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
  • 2 ounces cachaça

Forget the shaker for this recipe, put down the simple syrup, we’re going to build this in the glass. Put the lime wedges into the bottom of a double rocks glass, sprinkle the sugar on top, and gently muddle the sugar and limes together. The reason for the sugar instead of simple syrup is so you can use the sugar to abrade the limes, getting more oil and flavor out of the peels. You don’t want to shred the limes, but you do want them bruised and battered when done. Add the cachaça and ice (small or crushed is preferred here) and briefly stir to combine and chill. Garnish with a lime wheel if you are so inclined, I generally eschew that as there’s already a full lime in the drink.

The completed drink, sans garnish.

If you want to go with a shaken version, I would go with the following:

  • 1 part (0.5 oz) simple syrup
  • 2 part (1 oz) lime juice
  • 4 part (2 oz) cachaça

Add those to a shaker with ice, shake until combined and chilled, and strain into a chilled glass. If you want to lighten it up a bit, you could add a splash of soda water, but at that point, you’re getting dangerously close to turning it into a Collins.

Variations

The first and most common variation is to swap out the cachaça for rum (that sound you heard was Brazil cursing my name for mentioning this), or for another clear spirit. One standard rule when it comes to nearly every drink is that you can generally swap clear base spirits (rum, gin, tequila, and the lesser vodka) with each other. Going with an aged rum will change out the flavor quite a bit.

You can also swap out the lime for another fruit, or add fruits to it. Try adding a couple of berries, some kiwi, pineapple, or passionfruit in to muddle with the lime and sugar.

You can also play around with the sweetener, white is the standard, brown and demerara are options. However, be aware that they will have a negative impact on the appearance of the drink (in my opinion at least).

Batch Prepping

This drink is a simple one to make, and there’s not much to be done for batching it. I would suggest having the limes cut into wedges, and if you really want to make it easy, you could measure out the sugar amounts as well.

Another option for doing this as a host would be to set up a station for people to build their own. This drink doesn’t have shaking, you use the glass you’re going to drink it out of, and the only tool needed is the muddler. Have a selection of sugars, fruits, and spirits sitting next to glasses and muddlers.

Mocktail Version

Some drinks, like the Negroni, don’t lend themselves well for low or no alcohol options. This would be one of those drinks. Remove the spirit, and you’ve got limeade. Now, it may be fun for the kids to have a station with sugar and fruit, and you could let them muddle their own and make up their own flavors (with some supervision).

About The Author

Nephilium

Nephilium

Nephilium is a geek of multiple types living in the vast suburban forests of Cleveland.

74 Comments

  1. DEG

    but you do want them bruised and battered when done.

    You set up a safe word ahead of time?

  2. DEG

    The first and most common variation is to swap out the cachaça for rum

    I’m guessing a clear rum as opposed to Gosling’s Black Seal?

    The cocktail looks good.

    • UnCivilServant

      Fish the bottle of 151 out of the bottom of the fridge.

      Wait… didn’t Bacardi stop making that? I knew I kept it sealed for a reason.

      Get someone else’s 151 proof rum from the store.

    • Nephilium

      Any rum will work, clear will be the closest to cachaca. Agricole is basically the same thing, but cachaca likely predates rum production, and is a protected name for the spirit made in Brazil.

      • DEG

        Thanks!

  3. DEG

    There’s only three available in NH liquor stores. The one pictured is only $17. Not bad.

      • Rat on a train

        abolish VABC

      • ron73440

        abolish VABC

        Obviously.

        I hate I can’t buy that stuff at a Total Wine.

        On the bright side Curiada delivers here.

      • EvilSheldon

        On the bright side Curiada delivers here.

        ‘Here’ as in your area, or ‘here’ as in all of Virginia?

      • EvilSheldon

        Fuck my life, they do deliver to my address.

        Ron, I’m going to blame you for my upcoming alcoholism, and also for when my bar shelf collapses under its own weight…

      • ron73440

        ‘Here’ as in your area, or ‘here’ as in all of Virginia?

        They deliver to my house in Suffolk, anymore than that, I don’t know.

      • ron73440

        Ron, I’m going to blame you for my upcoming alcoholism, and also for when my bar shelf collapses under its own weight…

        I have bought way more from them than I should.

        Shipping is expensive though.

        I usually don’t tell my wife about that part when I buy a bottle or three.

  4. ron73440

    Since I’ve never had cachaça, how different is it from a good(not Bacardi) clear rum?

    Is the flavor the same, just the country of origin is different?

    Or is it closer to an agricole?

    • EvilSheldon

      On the subject of white spirits, I wonder what a Caiprinha would taste like if you swapped out the cachaca for something like Buffalo Trace White Dog?

    • Nephilium

      It’ll have some more grassy and green notes. As I said upthread, agricole is basically cachaca made somewhere else.

      • ron73440

        So it’s a daiquiri done a little different?

        Still I think I’m gonna get a bottle and try it out, it looks very tempting.

      • Nephilium

        ron73440:

        Very similar. I was thinking about doing the daiquiri for the cocktail of the month, but wanted to showcase something a little more unusual.

        There’s also something I appreciate about the simplicity of the cleanup for this. Muddler and barspoon are easier (to me) to get cleaned up and ready for another drink over a shaker.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    Nice glass.

    • Nephilium

      Thanks. It’s from Gay Fad down Lancaster (OH) way. They’ve been coming up and showing off their wares at May Tai Mayhem the past several years.

    • EvilSheldon

      The National Forensic Service found the seasoning has poppy seeds,…

      The National Forensic Service found this out, huh? What’d they do, read the fucking label? It says ‘poppy seeds’ right in the ingredient list.

      So, how many poppy seed bagels would I need to eat to get my fold on?

      • Rat on a train

        You can also end up with osteoporosis.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    I used to know a guy who went to federal prison for counterfeiting (those guys really don’t like anybody horning in on their magic scraps of paper scam). He wouldn’t go to lunch at Wendy’s because they had poppy seed buns and he was afraid it might trigger a positive drug test and send him back to camp.

    • rhywun

      That is how you take out the trash.

    • Sensei

      Naturally after the arrest the road needs to be shut down for an indeterminate time and 20+ cops need to come to the scene.

      Even when the cops do the right thing it’s tough to like them.

      • ron73440

        I had the same thought Sensei.

        Getting the roads open for all the poor bastards that are stuck there is very low on the priority list.

      • R C Dean

        The way cops dogpile every single interaction with the public drives me nuts.

        Then, of course, they cry about being understaffed.

        They had an accident in ABQ recently – some drunk chick speeding through downtown and wrecked on a sidewalk – where the cops were too busy dogpiling somebody in a motel with 20 cruisers, etc. to come and arrest her, so she walked. Lucky she didn’t kill anybody.

    • Grumbletarian

      He may have been caught like a motherfucker, baby.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Unforgiveable

    A pageant queen recently crowned Miss North Carolina USA has been stripped of her title after a string of alleged racist posts resurfaced.

    Brittany Boltinhouse, 27, was formally dethroned on Wednesday by pageant organizers A Blaize Productions after what it said was “a thorough review of recently surfaced information”.

    The organization did not disclose what Boltinhouse had allegedly posted but said the decision had been taken after “careful consideration, multiple conversations, and in consultation with the Miss USA Organization”.

    The organization said it believes “people are capable of growth” and that “grace and accountability can coexist” but the organization must also uphold the standards and values expected of titleholders.

    So grotesque and hateful we can’t repeat them. Otherwise we’d have to cancel ourselves. We certainly cannot forgive them.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Thom Brodeur, president and CEO of Miss USA, said that the brand “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, nor language that strips any person of their dignity – whoever they are”.

    Okay Karen.

      • UnCivilServant

        *Not Brooks, the anti-speech asshole.

    • The Other Kevin

      Just shut up and tape those tits together girls.

  9. (((Jarflax

    Wait there are 4 brands of Cachaca without methanol? I ‘enjoyed’ a bottle from El Salvador, with a hand inked label back in high school. That was some raw sterno bum alcohol.

    • Timeloose

      Pictures Jarflax yelling out the window at two bums in an alley. “shut up you Cachaca bums, respectable people gotta work tomorrow!”

      • (((Jarflax

        Hmm, maybe I should yell that at my ‘darling’ cats when they decide that 4 am is time to wake up.

    • Nephilium

      Up here, the hand labeled mason jars were generally slivovitz.

      Not so many Brazilians up here.

      • (((Jarflax

        Also raw and nasty lol

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Monkey see, monkey do

    And today, we found out what that first new EV—an affordable four-door pickup truck—will be called: the Ford Fathom.

    We’ve known for some time that the first EV built on Ford’s new UEV platform was going to be a pickup truck. And that it would use a new zonal architecture for its electronics, which massively reduces the amount of wiring needed by swapping the hundred or more discrete electronic control units you find in most new cars with a handful of powerful computers each controlling multiple domains.

    We’ve also known for some time that we should expect something the size of a Ford Maverick on the outside—except far more streamlined—with more cabin space than the Toyota RAV4. The Fathom will be capable of bidirectional charging, and Ford’s BlueCruise, hands-free, partially automated driver assist will also be an option.

    What we didn’t know was the exact starting price, but like the name, we now have that missing puzzle piece: $28,350, plus a $1,595 delivery charge.

    This time, for sure.

    *Fathom?

    • UnCivilServant

      bidirectional charging

      Double deal-breaker. Commiefornia used that ability to steal charge from people’s cars already. EV and you can’t be sure it’s even charging up? Pass and Pass.

      • Plinker762

        It’s how deep the water has to be to smother the battery fire.

    • trshmnstr

      At $30k it’s cheap enough to consider for half a second for certain applications. None of the applications I need a pickup truck for, but certain applications.

    • R.J.

      Oh, it gets better. Ford called the release of this truck a “model T moment.”

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Ford Fathom, as you already know it will deep six the company.

  11. The Other Kevin

    Now I’m seeing tons of stories about that Wisconsin commie and all I can think about was SF’s story yesterday. It’s hilarious. May blessings be upon your house SF.

      • UnCivilServant

        Maybe it’s because I’m asking for the return of something which was not here to begin with 🤔

      • Bobarian LMD

        Praying to the wrong god. Chthulu/SMOD in ’28! It’s the only way to be sure.

    • R C Dean

      I’ve dropped a few comments on Substack notes about her Innsmouth look. Not sure if I’ve gotten any reactions yet.

    • Brochettaward

      Francesca Hong? Not gonna lie she looks a little down syndrome-y. I feel bad saying that because most retards are harmless and good spirited and it’s rotten to compare them to commies.

  12. Brochettaward

    You know what really pisses me off about the left trying to pretend as if they care about protecting children from sex, and what almost never gets pointed out?

    It’s really a built-in feature of so many of their institutions. Hollywood had a reckoning with #MeToo that was from the start more like a power grab by females in the industry who blatantly weaponized accusations of abuse. You know what they didn’t bother to ask about at any point in time? The sexual abuse of minors.

    Same thing with teacher’s unions. Stories of them protecting no-shit abusers have been around for years and swept under the rug, but the second this subject comes up you’ll hear about priests or some shit. Catholic Church was unquestionably rotten, but don’t you dare question the teachers who would protect pieces of shit like that while professing to care about the children. Christ they don’t just not care about teaching them, they literally hold them in such disdain that they barely want to address sexual violence against them.

    If it weren’t for double standards the left would have none ya know…

  13. The Late P Brooks

    I am baffled by the bizarre schizoid hysteria about sex in this country.

    • trshmnstr

      It’s a culture that has left the religion behind but still clings to the mores.

      They sound crazy because they hold views for no particular reason except that they’ve always held those views and it’s convenient to assert those views to get their way.

    • Brochettaward

      The newest trend is bitching about “child marriage.” Mainly women who aren’t 18 marrying which 96% of the time is legitimately a man within a 4 year age gap. Outside a few freak cases it hasn’t been a legitimate issue for some time.

      Using the term child is just the usual with modern feminists and their attempt to both infantilize women in every conceivable way to shield them from the accountability for their actions and secure them full protections under the law for anything and everything while still holding full adult-y rights.

      They tend to target red states when they go off on this even though plenty of blue states have more lax laws.

      The fact that early feminists took a different tact and modern ones still very often times talk about promiscuity as if it’s liberation is irrelevant.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    At $30k it’s cheap enough to consider for half a second for certain applications. None of the applications I need a pickup truck for, but certain applications.

    Yard sale trolling and runs to the garden store. For people who view their car as just another appliance, why not?

    It doesn’t make any less sense than having an $80k luxury monster truck as your daily driver.

    • ron73440

      My truck is very rarely used as truck and on the occasions it it, the 3/4 ton is way overkilll.

      I mostly use it for weekend errands and long trips.

      On the bright side I only have about $30,000(purchase, parts, and paint) into her + who knows how many hours.

      • trshmnstr

        Ditto. The 4WD is the most used part of the truck (and is currently broken), so it’s overkill for me, too. It is nice to not even strain under a full bed of dirt or mulch like some of the smaller trucks do, but I don’t tow anything. Of course, one of my leaf spring brackets broke, so the hauling function is unusable now, too.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Praying to the wrong god. Chthulu/SMOD in ’28! It’s the only way to be sure.

    Don’t forget Kali.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Look who’s going all red dot over here.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    What’s in a name?

    What led to Salad and Go’s downfall

    The fast casual chain faced significant expenses following an aggressive expansion. It also suffered from wilting demand and was unable to sell itself prior to filing for Ch. 11.

    I’m not sure “Salad and Go” has particularly positive connotations, these days.

    • EvilSheldon

      Were these all drive-thrus? People don’t go to drive-thrus for food they can’t eat in their car. The whole idea sounds stupid.

      • Brochettaward

        It was. It also became ridiculously expensive for those fucking salads (I’m told, i’ve never seen one of these in the wild). SO you had them charging $20+ for a fucking small salad. It was an absurd business model and I’d wager a guess the salads were still filled with crap to up the calorie intake.

        So much bad nutrition still gets passed off these days. Losing weight and eating healthy is nowhere near as complicated as it gets made out to be.

      • Nephilium

        There’s been a trend here for places to have pick up windows for to go food that you wouldn’t eat in the car. Such as Chipotle, pizza places, Italian restaurants and the like. Usually (outside Chipotle) they’re converted fast food places or old banks that had the window already built into the building.

      • Brochettaward

        Weirdest shit I saw was drive through daiquiri places in Texas.

        I don’t particularly care that it’s allowed, but it’s kind of contradictory you know?

      • R.J.

        We had drive through beer barns a while back.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    The Bulwark comes in hot

    We got lots of important elections stories this week, but none stranger than the outcome in the Republican primary for Michigan’s swingy 8th district, where Trump’s endorsed candidate, Navy veteran Amir Hassan, endured a shocking loss to a man named Tom Smith—who wasn’t even running anymore, having dropped out of the race last month. Smith carried the primary 50 percent to 33 percent, and was as surprised as anyone. Appearing at a GOP unity lunch yesterday, he had this to say: “I’m Tom Smith. I’m running for the 8th congressional district to unseat communist Comrade Rivet, and I’ll need your help to do it.” Those were his full remarks.

    For most GOP candidates, Trump’s endorsement is a golden ticket to the lizard-brain love of the GOP base. Sometimes, however, it’s apparently not enough to overcome a different kind of lizard-brain difficulty: running against a man named Tom Smith when your name is Amir Hassan. Happy Thursday.

    Ooh, another “America is full of lowbrow haters!” zinger. Your average Michigan booboisie bigot would vote for a dead goat before they’d vote for somebody named Hassan.

  18. Raven Nation

    This is definitely my favorite summer cocktail and one of overall faves. Of course, I cheat at times using bottled lime juice.

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