The past couple of years have seen a rise in recognition for South American cuisine. Lima’s Central topped The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2023 and this year, eight of the list come from South American countries. One of the big contributors to this rise has been the use of new and exciting native ingredients which much of the world isn’t familiar with.
In São Paulo, cocktail bar Sub Astor is doing the same with drinks. Led by director Fabio La Pietra, the bar is using plants and fruit from all corners of Brazil in its cocktails to connect locals with its own produce, while offering international guests something unique. The bar has recently launched the sixth generation of its Biomes of Brazil menu, with each of the six geographical regions represented by a cocktail which includes an ingredient from its respective biome.
“The idea is to pick an ingredient from each biome and create a drink to represent it. This means we don’t have to worry about finding new concepts for our menus every year, but can really focus on the diversity and use of ingredients from around Brazil,” says La Pietra.
“One of the biggest challenges of running a bar in São Paolo is the logistics of produce, because Brazil is such a big country. We’ve created a network of ongoing activities with local producers, ethno-botanists and rural people living on their native lands, in order to give them, their stories and products the stage at Sub Astor.”
Since introducing the concept in 2018, La Pietra has been inviting some of the industry’s biggest names in bartending to Brazil to take part in The Mission, an expedition which takes them to one of the six biomes to experience the cocktail ingredients in the wild.
La Pietra adds: “By inviting the world’s best professionals to interact with this beautiful nature, we can continue preserving our territory and local people – and that’s our main aim.”
As part of this year’s edition, the Italian led Drinks International to the seaside state of Camburi in the Mata Atalantica biome, where local forager Jorge Ferreira took the group into the depths of the jungle. Ferreira featured in Netflix series Chef’s Table for his local knowledge of Amazonian ingredients and, aside from his expertise in fungus and plants, he also identified local snakes according to their venomous potency.
Having learned about the cambuci fruit, which goes into the Mata Atlantica drink on the new menu, The Mission returned to São Paolo where the ingredients came together at Sub Astor. This full-circle learning will go a long way to raising the profile of Brazil’s bar scene and highlighting its potential for flavour development, but Sub Astor isn’t acting alone.
The bar is owned by Cia Tradicional de Comercio, a company which formed in 1995 and now has 51 food and beverage outlets across São Paolo, including several Astor bars, its Bráz Italian food chain, ‘boteco’ bar group Pirajá and craft beer tap rooms. With 1,380 employees across the portfolio, its operation and influence is significant. In one of its bars, the group reintroduced the traditional ‘chopp’ style of draft beer using nitrogen to give a creamy head. Fast-forward 15 years and AB Inbev now uses the same technique to serve draft Brahma across the city and it’s considered the norm by many locals.
“We see São Paolo as a loose and relaxed city,” adds La Pietra. “Of course, beer and Caipirinha culture is huge, but there’s definitely an increasing demand for more complex drinks and the number of top cocktail bars is growing a lot.
“That’s why, as well as our six biome drinks, we also have six classic Sub Astor drinks from previous menus. Some of these are twists on classic serves, which makes sense because locals have a good understanding of classic cocktails, but being able to offer a Brazilian element engages our guests that bit more.”
It’s true that the concept of using local ingredients isn’t new. Bartenders and brands all over the world are constantly trying to utilise seasonal and native ingredients in their drinks for sustainability and marketing purposes. The difference for Sub Astor is that it sits in the fifth-biggest country in the world by area, with the highest biodiversity index on Earth. There is no more exciting place from which to create cocktails with native ingredients.
