Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world and it is followed by India and Australia in the list of top beef exporting countries. Beef consumption is declined in past years and with the other challenging factors, beef consumption in Brazil is likely to recover slightly as the considerable price premium of beef is likely to limit the potential growth in consumption. Brazilian beef is exported into different categories as given below.
- Natural fresh beef
- Mudos offals
- Processed or industrialized
- Tripas or Casings
- Salted or Salgadas
Brazil food is delicious and amazingly diverse. These are some popular Brazil foods in different regions of the country that will make you want to visit and enjoy them: pine nuts, yams, cassava, hog plum, okra, peanuts, cheese bread, tapioca or chourico (spicy sausage). Also Pao de queijo, farinha de mandioca, Molhos , Óleos e temperos, Pimentas, trigo para quibe, azeite dende, Feijoada… You can shop online for the most popular ingredients directly from Brasil.
As to beverages, Brazil’s most popular beverages are Guaraná, Cajuína, Toddy palm, Maguary & Jandaia juices and many more. Guaraná Antarctica is an authentic brand, with unique and original flavours of Brazil based in Guaraná extracts. It’s the #1 domestic soft drink brand and most sold in the country.
Brazilian beer is mainly of the lager type. Brazilians drink it ice-cold, and it comes mostly in 600ml bottles or cans: ask for a cerveja. The best brands are the regional beers of Pará and Maranhão, Cerma and Cerpa, the latter available in good restaurants nationwide and called a cerpinha. The best nationally available beers are Antárctica, Bohêmia and Brahma.
Vinho (Brazilian wine) is mostly mediocre and quite sweet, though some of the wines produced in the South are pretty good, and also some sparkling wines can be excellent. The most reliable, widely available Brazilian label is Miolo, a smallish producer whose wines are found in good supermarkets throughout Brazil. Keep an eye out for the wines of the Casa Valduga and Don Laurindo, as well as the truly outstanding Villa Francioni label, a fragrant white produced in the highlands of Santa Catarina.
As for spirits, you can stick to national Brazilian drink, cachaça (also called pinga or in Rio, paraty), sugar-cane rum. The best cachaça is produced in stills on country farms; it is called cachaça da terra and, when produced with care, has a smoothness and taste the larger commercially produced brands lack. Look out for cachaça from Minas Gerais particularly. Alternatively, there are scores of brands of rum: some of the commonest ones are Velho Barreiro, Pitu and 51, but they are best drunk mixed in a caipirinha than neat.
Brazilians drink cachaça either neat or mixed with fruit juice. Taken neat it’s very fiery, but in a cocktail it can be delicious. By far the best way to drink it is in a caipirinha: Rum mixed with fresh lime, sugar and crushed ice: it may not sound like much, but it is the best cocktail you’re ever likely to drink. Variants are the caipirosca or caipiríssima, the same made with vodka. Waiters will often assume foreigners want vodka, so make sure you say caipirinha de cachaça. You can also get batidas, cachaça mixed with fruit juice and ice, which flow like water during Carnaval.