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If the thought of another brand of vodka is enough to make you want to drink iced tea again, Frisco Fish Distilleries, which is named after the town of Frisco Texas, is ready to introduce its new type of alcohol.
Not since the early 1960's, when tequila first made its way into the US, has anyone tried to market a new category of alcohol. This January, Frisco Fish launched its new line of distilled spirits to US consumers and is prepared to take on the likes of Bacardi, Jose Cuervo and Grey Goose. Cachaça, pronounced (Ka sha sa), is the third most widely distilled alcohol in the world, yet less than 1% is exported outside of its native Brazil. For more than 400 years, cachaça has been produced by fermenting and distilling sugar cane juice. Unlike rum, which is manufactured mainly from molasses, cachaça comes from the first press of the sugar cane plant. Typically served in Brazil's national cocktail the caipirinha, cachaça is now looking at displacing rum, vodka and even tequila in cocktails ranging from Cosmopolitans to Mojitos and from New York to Los Angeles. What makes Frisco Fish cachaça think that consumers will take a liking to this new alcohol? In 2005, cachaça overtook schnapps in Germany to become the 2nd most widely consumed distilled spirit. The same thing is now happening in Japan and late last year the winning cocktail at the US National drink competition in San Francisco was made with, you guessed it, Brazilian cachaça. Outside of visiting a Brazilian steakhouse, most US consumers have never come across cachaça, yet its mild flavor and simple manufacturing process allow it to be used with a variety of mixers to create old standards with a new twist. Frisco Fish does have its share of challenges before being able to accomplish their goal. Current US Federal Importation do not include a category for cachaça. For this reason, all of the cachaça currently being imported into the US has to be labeled as a Rum or Cane Spirit, even though it is not. The production of cachaça in Brazil is comprised of over 4,000 small manufacturers, many producing artisanal types of cachaças. In order to create some standardization, Frisco Fish Distilleries joined the US cachaça Trade Council to address these and other issues that manufacturers have with selling this new type of alcohol. The cachaça Trade Council's main goal is the creation of a Standard for cachaça that can be used to certify brands imported into the US. Only by using this standard can the TTB create a category specifically for cachaça. If you see cachaça in your local store, try it and enjoy, we may all be doing a little more entertaining in the upcoming future, thanks to Brazil's frisky spirits. Frisco Fish Distilleries - www.friscofish.com
Cachaça Trade Council - www.cachaçatc.com
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Ethanol !
5 or 10 years from now, when new technologies will come downstream with Fuel cell
engines in cars, ethanol will become your National beverage that every Brazilian will have to drink to the tune of 100 litres per capita/year, decree signed by Lula himself.
Knowing how Lula is a good citizen and patriot he already drinks 500 litres/year to show you : it can be done !