Screengrab via YouTube
There's an old video, originally filmed in July 2015, making the rounds again. It's just under a minute long, showing a group of Brazilian partygoers in Agronômica, a municipality of the state of Santa Catarina, making a big, mean batch of caipirinha with a repurposed washing machine.Inside this appliance is everything you'd need for Brazil's divine national cocktail—wedges of lime, cubes of ice, sugar, and cachaça. They're all churned vigorously by the rhythms and motions of the machine until muddled together. The finished product emerges from a spout at the bottom.This video isn't the only of its kind. Scour the web and you'll find similar videos of caipirinhas mixed with the aid of washing machines or the occasional tanquinho, which is, in effect, a smaller, plastic apparatus with the same capabilities as a standard washing machine. (My great fear while watching these videos is how you'd get rid of any detergent residue that may still exist within these vestibules, accidentally ingesting some toxic solution while chugging your cocktail. It's an issue these people seem to have circumvented entirely.)Gross? Nah. Genius. Clearly Brazil knows something America doesn't.
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