Cachaça (Portuguese pronunciation: [kaˈʃasɐ])[1] is a distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice.

[13] Cachaça, like rum, has two varieties: unaged (Portuguese: branca, "white" or prata, "silver") and aged (amarela, "yellow" or ouro, "gold").

Levels of copper in homemade cachaças can exceed the legal limits established by Brazilian law.

Some copper is considered desirable in the distillation process as a catalyst for the oxidation of sulfur compounds produced by fermentation, but the levels must be controlled by adequate maintenance and cleaning of the still to remove accumulated verdigris.

Some of these words were created for the purpose of deceiving the supervision of the metropolis in the days when cachaça was banned in Brazil; the beverage was competing with the European distillate grappa.

[3] Some of these nicknames are: abre-coração (heart-opener), água-benta (holy water), bafo-de-tigre (tiger breath), and limpa-olho (eye-wash).

The resulting beverage was known by several names: in British colonies, it was named rum; in France, tafia; in Spain, aguardiente de caña; and in Portugal (Brazil), aguardente da terra, aguardente de cana and later cachaça (locals also call it "Pinga",[19] which translates to drip).