Quentão
We watched Eduardo Mendonça of Show Brazil! make this at Bahia Street’s first Vashon Island São João celebration. I had a summer cold at the time, and when I tasted it, I knew I had the right medicine for my cough!
1 C cachaça (you can substitute light rum or even vodka)
1 lime, sliced thinly
1/2 C water
1 t cloves
1 cinnamon stick
Small piece of ginger
3 T white sugar
First, carmelize the sugar in a heavy saucepan. Then very slowly and carefully add the water to deglaze it. Stir in the other flavorings and simmer for a few minutes. Remove from heat and add the liquor. Be careful not to burn your mouth — carmelized sugar is dangerously hot.
Here are a couple of easier versions:
1 C cachaça or rum
1 lime, thinly sliced
1/2 C water
4 cloves
3-inch cinnamon stick
Superfine sugar to taste
Bring to boil, strain and serve.
1 C boiling water
2 T honey
1 t superfine sugar
1 T minced mint
2 cloves
2-inch stick cinnamon
1 C cachaça or rum
Boil everything but liquor for 10 minutes. Strain, add cachaça.
An alternative cold medicine, and probably healthier because it has no alcohol, is my spicy cough and cold remedy
Alternate search keywords: Cachaca, quentao.
2 Responses to “Quentão”
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January 16th, 2006 at 2:37 am
Finally,I found a good recipe for Quentao.
I was born in Brazil but have lived in the US since 1970.
I had Quentao one time in my life, I was 2 years old. I liked it so much that my mom say’s I had a fit when she
would not give me any more.
I searched the web for a while before I found this recipe. I’ts simple and uncomplicated.
Now I can have the taste I’ve been craving for since 1963.
Thank you………..
October 16th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
One cannot make a true “Quentao” using anything but Brazilian Cachaca, the national Brazilian spirit distilled from sugar cane juice, not mollasses, as is the case for rum and other cane spirits.
Now, if someone wants to experiment and use other spirits to prepare certain recipes in different ways, like this one for Quentao, that’s fine, but one should not call it the original name.
In Brazil, the way we prepare a Quentao is with Cachaca.
Also, what many people don’t know is that Cachaca is the 3rd largest spirit product in world by volume with an annual production of over 1.2 billion liters or over 317 million gallons, which is at least twice as large as the entire world’s production of rum.
The history of Cachaca goes back over 500 years, but only recently has the product become more known outside of Brazil, mostly in large urban centers of the US, Europe and Asia, because it is used to make the delicious Brazilian cocktails “Caipirinhas”, pronounced “Ki-Pee-Ree-Nia”.
Hope this clarifies.
Best regards,
CL Gomes
http://www.bossainternational.com