Abelha Organic Cachaça starts life in Bahia, Northern Brazil, where a collective of small-holding farmers grow sugar cane 100% organically on highland sandy soils. The cane is processed within 24 hours of being cut to ensure freshness, and then fermented using yeast found growing naturally on green sugar cane. From here the fermented cachaça is distilled in small batches in a traditional copper still. Only the heart or curacao, a small fraction of the distillate, is kept to ensure the highest possible quality.

The resulting spirit is then either rested (descansada) for 6 months in steel tanks or aged for 3 years in small 250L garapeira wooden barrels. It is then cut with water from deep natural aquifer under the farm which has the perfect pH acidity and is totally unpolluted. The result is a naturally full-flavoured, well-balanced cachaça.

The Responsible Trading Company (RTC), who produce Abelha Cachaça, are developing fair partnerships with small holding farmers. They share with them their values and organic teaching methods to enable farmers to grow sugar cane 100% organically on the highland sandy soils. The farm workers who make Abelha are paid a good wage, and are guaranteed a fair price for their cane. This makes for happier farmers and a better quality of sugar cane.

The RTC believe it is right to use the most traditional and natural farming techniques in order to create the best tasting hand-crafted cachaça.

“The fewer artificial chemical products we spray around, which in our case is zero, the better the cachaça, the better the environment and the better for everyone.” – Hal, Co-Founder, RTC.