The Caipirinha is a popular Brazilian cocktail based on cachaca (sugar cane rum), which is both refreshing and sweet. It is a delicious drink, which requires some simple prep and effort. read on to learn how to make a Caipirinha cocktail.

1. Always wash fruit before using it in drinks.

2. Add mint to the mix to make a Mojito.

The Caipirinha, is simpler to make than it looks, those who have tasted one know that it's worth the effort.

The word caipirinha (pronounced ‘kai-purr-een-yuh’) means ‘little countryside drink’ in Portuguese. Although there’s no definitive version of how the cocktail was invented, its story is bound up with that of cachaça, the spirit that Brazilians drink 200 million liters of every year.

• Rocks glass
• Pestle
• Mixing spoon
• 1 fresh lime, cut into four wedges
• 1½ teaspoons of sugar
• Crushed ice
• 1 3/4 cachaça (Brazilian sugar cane rum)

1. Place the sugar in the bottom of the glass followed by the lime wedges and muddle these together using the pestle. Muddling, for the uninitiated, simply means crushing and mixing the ingredients together.

1. Place the crushed ice over the mixture and pour the cachaça over the ice.
2. Stir thoroughly.

As is the case with most cocktails, a bit of a effort will improve the quality. Rolling the limes before you cut them will help release their juices and aromatic oils, as will squeezing them before muddling.

1. Use brown granulated sugar rather than white: not only does it's rough texture help extract more juice and oils from the lime but the melted dark sugar adds a toasted chewiness to the finished drink.
2. Crushing the ice as small as possible, ideally with an ice crushing machine, also helps the way the drink mixes