Tasty Treats

in Brazil!

May 23, 2025

Last week, we snuck back to Brazil for a long weekend. We flew into Sao Paulo and then split our time between Juquehy, a sleepy, under-the-radar beach town, and Sao Paulo, the biggest city in the Americas. If you know anything about Brazil, you probably know about the Caipirinha, classically made with cachaça, sugar, lime, and ice. They are so delicious, but what you might not know (I certainly didn’t), is that Brazil offers a world of non-alcoholic, totally natural drinks I had never heard of.

#1 Cashew Juice

This is the juice from the cashew fruit. I’ve only ever seen this in one other place- Phuket, Thailand. I loved it then and I love it now. It is sour, sweet, apple-y, a little tanic and a little nutty. It is a delight. I’d be happy to sip these noon and night.

#2 Frozen De Cana

This frosty treat is a slurpee-like drink except it only has one ingredient- sugar cane juice! It’s sweet but not cloying and topped with little sugar cane crumbles that give it just a little gourmet touch. We got this after a long, hot walking tour and it brought me back to life

#3 Put the Lime in the Coconut

Really! That’s all you do! Well, I guess you blend it up. This one is a flavor explosion. Very sweet. Very sour. Very creamy. It’s an assault on the senses but in the best way

Be sure, we had plenty of alcoholic drinks as well, but honestly none I enjoyed more than these. The sober-curious crowd needs to look into bringing these tasty treats state-side.

Honorable mention:

The humble coconut

While not a surprise treat, drinking straight from a coconut on a beautiful beach in Brazil is one of life’s great pleasures. They only cost $1 each. We had one every day.

A moment for the snacks:

We stumbled upon two super-tasty Brazilian snacks in checkout line of the grocery store. These cheap, quick bites have no business being as delicious as they are. And they have two and three ingredients respectively. No sodium benzoate. No guar gum. Just Brazilian deliciousness.

Banana and sugar.