Caipirinhas

Caipirinhas, not routinely found on the menus of British cocktail bars, are the national drink of Brazil. They are found everywhere from classy cocktail bars to beachside huts with plastic chairs, and can cost anything from £2 to £20 accordingly. They are made by muddling chopped lime with cachaca (a sprit distilled from sugarcane) and shaking the mixture over a glassful of crushed ice.

We mostly drank caipirinhas in plastic cups from beach huts or street stalls in Lapa, where you got a lot of cachaca for your money, but we did have the occasional posher one, notably in Garota de Ipanema in Rio and Veloso bar in Sao Paulo. My parents even found a restaurant in Rio where they came with a lime ice lolly in the glass, but they frequented classier establishments than we did. 

They are extremely refreshing, very moorish and dangerously drinkable. The bittersweet taste masks the burn of the alcohol, and if you aren't careful things can get messy.....

Kate

Churros in South America

Churros - choux pastry dough squeezed through a star shaped nozzle into strips, deep fried, dusted in sugar and spices and dipped in hot chocolate. What's not to like? Churros are a typical Spanish snack, and on a family holiday near Barcelona many years ago, my then 2 year old brother refused to eat anything else. It is also common in Latin America, and gives you a great burst of energy when exploring a city.

Our first churros were in cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires, a gorgeous elaborate cafe that is the oldest coffee shop in Argentina. One serving consisted of six sticks of churro generously dusted with sugar, alongside hot chocolate. The churros were warm and crisp and the hot chocolate was similar to what you tend to get in England, sweet, creamy and the consistency of milk. 

Next, we had churros in Ushuaia, the most southerly town in the world. We got it to take away and ate it whilst sitting on a bench overlooking the Beagle Channel. These churros were the thickest I have ever seen. One stick was plain with just a sugar dusting, the other was stuffed with dulce de leche and had swirls of white and dark chocolate sauce on the outside. The sweeter the better in Argentina. They were warm, very moist because of the thickness, and very very sweet. We had coffee with these, and while I am glad I experienced the stuffed churros, I prefer the plain ones. 

The last churros were in a cafe called Manolo in the Miraflores area of Lima, Peru. Again we were given six sticks per serving. These churros were thinner and crispier than we had had before and simply rolled in sugar. They were served alongside thick, dark hot chocolate that tasted like pure melted chocolate. This meant that you picked up a lot of chocolate on each dip, and (in my opinion) gave the perfect churro:chocolate ratio. It was also the most similar to the churros we ate in Spain. All of the churros were good, (really, how could they be bad?) but these were our favourite.

Kate