Returning from recent travel, it was noted by an UXUA barman that the world seems to have suddenly discovered the health benefits of coconuts, rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes and electrolytes. They're being imported everywhere !
But at UXUA, we've always appreciated coconut power. We use it in our Almescar Spa, in our kitchen, in our ice cream shop, and at our bar (actually we even carve desert spoons and small dishes from its shell). And when we need a coconut we don't make a trip to the market, we just send João our gardener up a tree to throw some down!
Our greatest tribute to the coconut, worldwide wonder, is the UXUA Caipicoco, a variation of Brazil's iconic Caipirinha.
The Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, the word being the diminutive version of the word caipira, which refers to someone from the countryside. The Caipirinha is made with Brazil's most common distilled alcoholic beverage, cachaça, also known as Pinga or Caninha. Like rum cachaça is a sugar-cane derived hard liquor, and the alcohol results from the fermentation of sugarcane juice that is afterwards distilled.
UXUA's Caipicoco differs from the caipirinha with the substitution of fresh coconut from UXUA's garden instead of lemon.
The taste is fresh, sweet and nutty, and distinctly Trancoso, and with the ingredients principally sourced in the village (and no ingredients from outside Brasil) its a very local drink
The drink is served with a wedge of coconut in the glass, and a locally produced spoon carved from coconut
Caipicoco is time-consuming to prepare, as the coconut pulp is scooped by hand from a freshly opened coconut at each order, but this labor of love gives the drink an even more special flavor. Bahia is a state of Brazil known by many Brazilians to be the ‘world capital of happiness’, and preparing the capicoco needs to be done with a smile !
• coconut water
• coconut pulp
• cachaça
• ice
• a drop of sugar
• serve with a wedge of coconut
