Reflections, Part 3: Overwhelmed by Flavor
Until relatively recently, consumers thought of cachaça as one thing: prata (or silver). There were probably a few rebels who aged their cachaça in barrels of various types of wood, including balsam, which is common in Minas Gerais. But not many. There just wasn’t a market for it. Now, aging is a must. Even the industrial producers are making aged cachaça.
What this means is that there is a ton of experimentation going on. While some distilleries have already figured out what they’re good at, and stick to it, many still haven’t figured it out. They’re working with between three and seven different woods; making blends; trying to see how they can create a great product that the public will love. They’re also playing with length of aging, trying to figure out how they can get what they have out the door without overproducing and having a glut of product on hand.
This experimentation still confuses me. I still find it strange, for example, to see two-year old oak aged cachaças. Why two years? Are they producing so much that they can’t age for longer than that?
There are also blends that are not for the faint of heart. Now, I admit that I enjoy some of these blends. But from an industry perspective, many are strange. The average consumer isn’t going to buy them consistently, if at all. Their flavors can be overwhelming and they don’t necessarily make delicious cocktails. So who are they for?
There are even newer barrels using multiple kinds of wood being used to create new cachaça. Does anyone know how they’re going to turn out? I don’t think so.
What I’m suggesting is that despite the four-hundred-year history of cachaça, it’s only been over the last couple decades where a wide range of producers have worked to distinguish themselves. Every producer now understands that they can’t just produce prata. There’s way too much competition. They must make their products stand out. And most of them haven’t figured out how to do that yet. And they won’t figure out how to do it for years to come. Because they have been so open, distilleries have created more choices than the average consumer is going to have patience for.
On roller coaster of flavor creation, I believe that it’s going to be essential to have guides. There’s just no way for a normal person to navigate the wild west that is cachaça tasting. Everyone is going to be different, of course, so most consumers will need to be steered in a product direction that most matches their tastes. With over 4,000 producers, who are experimenting constantly, this will be a challenge But there’s really no alternative. The good news is that there are sommeliers out there. The bad news is that only people who are really into cachaça seem to be working with them.
The market needs to get some focus. Cachaça heads will always be cachaça heads. But the industry can’t let regular consumers try to figure everything out on their own. It must be self-aware enough to build cachaça education that steers consumers in the right direction. There still aren’t enough of those educators, however.
