Abelha Cachaça starts life in Bahia, Northern Brazil, where a collective of small-holding farmers grow sugar cane 100% organically on highland sandy soils. Our cane is processed within 24 hours of being cut to ensure freshness, and then fermented. We get our yeast by culturing yeast found growing naturally on green sugar cane - we do not use laboratory-selected or single strain yeasts. From here, we distill the Cachaça in small batches in traditional copper stills, and keep only a small fraction (the heart or coraçao) to be rested or aged. Abelha Cachaça Silver is a premium hand-crafted white, rested (descansada) Cachaça, with a clean and natural flavour which makes perfect caipirinhas. Abelha Cachaça Gold is aged for 3 years in small 250L garapeira wooden barrels.  This aging process imparts a beautiful mellow tone to the cachaca. The result is the naturally full-flavoured, well-balanced Cachaça to enjoy neat or mixed in cocktails.

Ethical Business

We don’t believe in working too hard for no reward. The farm workers who make Abelha are paid a good wage, and we guarantee to pay a fair price for their cane. The Responsible Trading Company who produces Abelha Cachaça are developing fair partnerships with small holding farmers. They share with them their values and organic teaching methods to enable farmers to grow sugar cane 100% organically on the highland sandy soils. This makes for happier farmers and a better quality of sugar cane. 

Why Organic?

In trying to create the best tasting, hand-crafted Cachaça, it seemed right that we should use the most traditional and natural farming techniques. The less artificial chemical products we spray around (which in our case is zero) the better the Cachaça, the better everything is for us and the environment. It’s normal for non-organic farmers in Brazil to burn sugar cane fields, making them easier to harvest - it removes leaves and gets rid of snakes and spiders. We do not use this process; for a cane to qualify as organic (like ours), it must not be burnt prior to harvest. Air pollution from burning cane fields is so bad that Sao Paolo state is starting to place regulations on when cane can be burnt. Aside from the huge choking clouds of smoke and ash, burning cane fields also releases various nitrogen compounds into the air, which create ozone.

Abelha Silver
Resting the Cachaça for a few months in open steel tanks allows some of the less desirable compounds to evaporate or oxidise into phenols, which give the Cachaça its characteristic bouquet. The result is a full-flavoured artisanal Cachaça, with an intense fruit/vegetal nose, fresh sugar cane and stone fruits taste, and a smooth dry finish. Perfect for Caipirinhas.