As producers push the spirit towards the premium end of the market, regulation, fragmented production and a lack of consumer education are creating hurdles at home and abroad.
Last year, I looked at how cachaça is diversifying through ageing, with producers increasingly exploring different Brazilian woods. But creating diversity is only part of the challenge. As the category moves beyond the Caipirinha, consumers need a clearer understanding of its styles, ageing and premium credentials because outside Brazil, quality aged cachaça is scarce.
“MAPA, the Ministério da Agricultura e Pecuária (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock) is the regulatory organisation that does everything to do with agriculture in Brazil,” says Bruno Zanetti, co-founder and master distiller at Cachaça Rizz. “It’s a really big country and the same organisation that regulates milk and soy, for example, regulates the distilling part as well. It’s really hard to keep track of which companies are doing the correct production.”
Hal Stockley, co-founder of Abelha, adds that Brazil’s sheer scale makes the challenge even harder. “There are thousands of cachaça producers, which means domestically it’s difficult because of the competition. People get served by their local distillery and many aren’t registered, so there’s a trend of increasing registration.”
He also argues that Brazil itself is yet to follow similar category promotion that has helped other national spirits build in international markets. “I think for the Brazilian government it’s not high on their radar to promote cachaça as a category. There are two or three big players in Brazil that really control everything and it’s not in their interest to proliferate and expand the category.”
Compare this with the support Scotch whisky receives from the UK government – perhaps stronger institutional backing could help develop exports. Stockley estimates that only 1-2% of cachaça is exported, with international growth increasingly focused on premium, pot-stilled and artisanal expressions rather than the industrial products that have historically dominated the category.
“Abelha is a brand that was set up with the idea of helping Brazilian exports. So it’s a partnership between a UK company and a Brazilian distillery, looking to build on the trends of premiumisation and of cachaça awareness.”
The opportunity is less about creating awareness from scratch and more about convincing both trade and consumers that cachaça can hold its own in the premium spirits space. “We’re seeing growing interest in premium, artisanal sugarcane spirits with a strong sense of provenance,” says Chris Seale, managing director of Speciality Brands, which has recently added Abelha to its portfolio.
Zanetti argues that the low prices associated with much of the domestic market make it harder for producers investing in quality to establish a premium position. “I think the category needs to work more on better marketing for cachaça products – the image of cachaça here inside Brazil is not so good. We need to educate people more on how to drink it. You have really cheap products, it’s a lot of work to distil a really good product and it takes a lot of time. You should not be able to get a good bottle of cachaça really cheap.”
Challenging infrastructure
There are also obstacles beyond this regulation and consumer awareness. Stockley notes Brazil’s infrastructure and the practical difficulty of moving products around such a large country. “We have problems with logistics and getting stuff, we had a lorry load of bottles smash. So infrastructure is a difficulty, but that’s personal to our brand and where we are.”
Internationally, the US remains an important potential growth market, but Stockley warns that tariffs could create problems when it comes to exporting the spirit from Brazil. The US Trade Representative (USTR) imposed a 25% tariff on Brazilian goods, effective as of 22 July. “I mean, can they even export there anymore? It completely ruins your business. It’s not a product that can deal with a 25% tariff,” says Stockley.
A new identity
For Zanetti, it’s down to the next generation of producers to tackle the category in a few directions; production, regulation, education and design. Zanetti’s distillery is just five years old, with its first distillation taking place in 2022. The family-run distillery grows its own sugarcane 20m from the distillery and is experimenting with Brazilian woods as well as American and French oak.
“We use different kinds of Brazilian woods, American oak, French oak, and everyone was enjoying our maple barrel cachaça at the trade fair here in Brazil. We have different visuals for our cachaça, and we want to bring new visuals to the cachaça world.”
Modern presentation is part of a much bigger reset for the category. Zanetti believes cachaça needs to take the leap from a traditional Brazilian product to a contemporary premium spirit. “People need to be educated on it, you have a lot of good references outside in the Scotch world, bourbon and the wine world for example. I see a lot of new people doing fantastic things in cachaça.”
Stockley sees the bar as the most effective route to communicating the difference between cachaças, particularly as producers experiment with ageing and wood. “Our current gold is in the garapeira wood which is an ash from South Brazil, but we aged in oak and recently American oak and now we’re trialling that in the New York market as people like oak-aged spirits. Beyond the Caipirinha, bartenders are really well placed to do it once they’ve tasted the natural flavour of the base spirit.”
For Seale, cachaça fits into a wider movement towards provenance-led sugarcane spirits. “The classic Caipirinha remains the main driver of consumer awareness for cachaça, but we’re also seeing bartenders explore the category in more diverse ways. Artisanal white and aged cachaças can bring a distinctive character to classic serves, from Daiquiris and Mojitos to other cocktails traditionally made with rum.”
In the latest Drinks International Cocktail Report, the Caipirinha ranked 33rd in the 2026 list of bestselling classics at the world’s best bars, having been 47th in 2024. This movement is important to note as it reinforces the opportunity for the spirit. However, the category’s premium proposition is still less developed than many competing spirits.
For now, the premium end of the category is moving in the right direction. Speciality Brands is betting on Abelha’s provenance and quality to build its UK presence, while new distilleries such as Rizz are attempting to modernise both liquid and look.
However, for cachaça to become a fully international premium category, its producers may need to solve some unglamorous problems before its selling points can do the work. As Zanetti puts it: “We want cachaça to be a cultural identity so that everyone can promote Brazil. We need to change the image of it.”
