If you're not using whole fruit, might it make sense to substitute simple syrup for the cane sugar? (My understanding of its use in the caipirinha, aside from tradition, is that the sugar helps serve as an abrasive to release the juice and oils when muddling the limes.)
You can also just buy extra-fine-grind sugar in a lot of markets now, under the name baker's sugar. The Test Kitchen doesn't really think it's worth the effort in most baking recipes, but in drinks, it can save you a step.
We bought that for a while till our local grocery stopped carrying it. (Though you can get smaller packages of the same sort of thing labeled as "superfine" sugar. Or, if you're not lazy like me, you can use the blender as robin_d_laws describes.) It's good for rimming glasses for drinks like Sidecars as well, since the finer crystals cling better.
Actually, this might be the perfect drink for muscovado sugar, a brown sugar which takes its color from directly from the (relatively) unprocessed cane liquid instead of the post-process molasses.
It's my linguistically incorrect contraction of bloody caipirinha. For more on the origins of the name of the drink on which this is a variant, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha#Name
I made caipirinha for a Brazil-themed dinner many years ago (the family was going through a stage of having once-a-week themed dinners, mostly themed with a country), I just vaguely remembered 'caipirinha' meaning something like 'little girl' (as opposed to what the link says which is 'little country girl'). From that dinner, I also remember 'camarao con catupiry na moranga' which no doubt I am spelling incorrectly but which was the best use of a pumpkin I have ever tasted (it was stuffed with prawns and rich cream-cheese).
I also remember putting a sprig of mint on the caipirinha, but that may just be due to liking the taste of citrus + mint.
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I also remember putting a sprig of mint on the caipirinha, but that may just be due to liking the taste of citrus + mint.
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Probably just as well that I can't have significant amounts of alcohol due to a medication these days (sigh).
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