Estonian company BR Imports brings Famosinha de Minas cachaças from Brazil and it is apparently the only country in Europe which offers this product. BR Imports import Brazilian products to Estonia, including coffee, açaí (a Brazilian snack made from the açaí palm) and alcohols. The company also ran a café-restaurant Cafe Brazil in Tallinn for a few years, but closed it in 2024. Famosinha cachaça is produced both in clear and in two different matured versions. Oak is used for the maturation of Carvalho and Brazilian cherry wood for Amburana. After distillation, cachaça (alcohol made from sugar cane juice) is matured for two years in toasted cherry wood barrels. Famosinha can be tasted at selected restaurants and pubs in Tallinn and Tartu, or you can order a bottle directly to your home from the BR Imports website. A 70cl bottle costs around €40.
Famosinha Amburana is only a very light brown in color, so the cherry wood hasn’t added much color in two years. No coloring or other additives have been used in the production of Cachaça. The aroma is pleasantly sweet and quite original, I haven’t come across a similar aroma before. It’s something like cherry or another berry, with a raw and earthy vegetal aroma in the background. The flavor is strong and aromatic. There’s a fair amount of sweetness in the beginning, which is quickly cut by the pretty sharp alcohol burn. Although the cherry wood hasn’t added much color to the drink, it has nevertheless released a fair amount of honeyed sweetness. The earthy aroma of sugarcane liquor is also strongly present, which the barrel aging has nicely calmed and balanced. It should be mentioned that the bottle has been opened and about half-empty for quite some time before writing this review. However, oxidation has only done only a good job, the taste was significantly sharper in the beginning of opening the bottle.
Amburana is clearly the more interesting of the two Famosinha products. Carvalho was more of a lean whiskey-like product, while Amburana is more original and complex. Famosinha Amburana can be also sipped neat, but due to the rather sharp alcohol burn I prefer to add a splash of water or ice cubes in the glass. By mixing various fruit juices with it, you can prepare original and exotic drinks. A very interesting product that is indeed worth trying for at least one glass on your trip to Tallinn.
90/100
