Cachaça

Brazil's Decree 12.709 of 31 October 2025 defines aguardente de cana as a drink of 38 to 54 % vol. at 20 °C, obtained from a simple sugar-cane distillate or by distilling fermented cane-juice must. Article 54 makes cachaça "the typical and exclusive name" of aguardente de cana produced in Brazil, with an alcoholic strength of 38 to 48 % vol. and peculiar sensory characteristics.

The 2025 decree replaced Decree 6.871 of 2009, whose definition also allowed up to 6 g/l of added sugars; that limit does not appear in the new article as read for this atlas.

Brazilian law treats rum separately. Rum, rhum or ron (art. 56) is 35 to 54 % vol. and comes from a molasses distillate, or a blend of cane-juice and molasses distillates, wholly or partly aged in oak or equivalent wood. Cachaça is a cane-juice spirit tied by name to Brazil, closer in raw material to rhum agricole than to molasses rum.

Decree 4.062 of 21 December 2001 declared "cachaça" a geographical indication of exclusively Brazilian origin and use, and "Brasil" a geographical indication for cachaça. Only producers established in Brazil and complying with the beverage rules may use "cachaça", "Brasil" or "cachaça do Brasil".