Cachaça bidestilada para a produção de aguardente composta de jambu

Abstract

Drink with origins linked to Brazilian roots, cachaça is the most consumed spirit in the country. Made from fermented sugar cane juice, it can be produced in all country. Normative Instruction Nº 13, dated 06/29/2005, determines the standards to be respected by producers in order to guarantee the quality of the spirit. The congeners and contaminants in the drink come from several factors. In addition to care during the production process, bidistillation is a way of obtaining a superior quality spirit and public acceptance. The jambu, Acmella oleracea (L.) R. K. Jansen, is a plant used in cooking and alternative medicine in northern Brazil. Its leaves and flowers contain spilanthol, composed of several functions, such as natural painkiller. When jambu flowers are infused into cachaça, a spirit called jambu brandy (aguardente composta de jambu) is obtained, capable of causing the tingling sensation on the lips and tongue. This work aims to present the production process of double distilled cachaça for the production of aguardente composta de jambu. For this, the quantities of jambu used were 20 and 100 g/L, during periods of 7, 15 and 30 days of infusion, generating 6 samples of brandy. The pure bidistilled cachaça was directed to physical-chemical analyzes for the quantification of its components. The concentration of volatile acids, 20 mg of acetic acid/100 mL of anhydrous alcohol, lead with 0.1500 mg Pb/L, 3.270 mg Cu/L of copper and arsenic below the quantification limit of 0.0052 was determined mg As/L. Other compounds below the limits of quantification were upper alcohols, total esters, methanol and hydroxymethylfurfural. The spirit presented a final alcoholic strength of 39.6 % v/v. All levels obtained were in accordance with the requirements of current legislation. The quantification of aldehydes, acrolein and ethyl carbamate could not be performed due to the lack of necessary standards or reagents. The spilanthol could not be quantified in GC-FID, GC-MS and HPLC, due to the same misfortune. Therefore, the amount of nitrogen in the samples was evaluated, as the compound is an aliphatic N-alkylamide. However, it was not possible to relate the data obtained with the quantities of jambu used in their infusion time. These two factors influenced the color of the samples, increasing their intensity according to the fraction of flowers used and the length of the period in contact with the cachaça. The maximum absorption in UV-Vis proved this direct relationship, as well as the sensorial evaluation of the samples conducted by the author. The good practices adopted during the production process of cachaça allow to obtain a drink of high standard, meeting the requirements established by the Normative Instruction. Therefore, it appears that cachaça can be used to produce a spirit capable of providing unique sensory experiences for its consumers. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]