In each menu he works on, São Paulo–born bartender Diogo Sevilio finds room for the Maria Mole. A well-liked drink as soon as beloved in bars throughout Brazil, the cocktail fell out of favor with the rise of craft cocktails within the nation, rapidly overshadowed by dry Martinis and Negronis. However Sevilio desires to revive its fame.
“I at all times embody [Maria Mole] in my menus as a type of resistance,” Sevilio says. In accordance with him, the drink—like different traditionally well-liked cocktails in Brazil, such because the Rabo de Galo—was sidelined resulting from what he describes as “pure prejudice” towards accessible, cheap recipes. As upscale bars took Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo by storm, these drinks “got here to be seen as decrease in high quality, which isn’t essentially true,” he says.
The bottom of the Brazilian basic is an reasonably priced sugarcane distillate from the model Dreher, which was based in 1910. The spirit is much like the extra ubiquitous cachaça, however it’s flavored with ginger and oak, lending it extra sweetness. Within the Nineteen Eighties, the distillate turned referred to as the “Brazilian Cognac,” ultimately dominating bar counters and liquor retailer cabinets throughout the nation. Its fame will be attributed to a viral promoting marketing campaign that prompt mixing the spirit with vermouth, cementing the model within the minds and mouths of Brazilians. That drink was the Maria Mole.
The cocktail’s inspiration is a standard Brazilian dessert of the identical title; constituted of gelatin and sugar, it’s recognized for its mild, spongy texture. The time period “Maria mole” can even seek advice from one thing comfortable or with out construction, which doubtless influenced the cocktail’s title, reflecting its easy and velvety texture.
Through the years, bartenders have come again to a few of these relics of the previous with contemporary eyes.
“For me, like many bartenders, having a drink was at all times an funding; it was by no means a part of my way of life as a result of it wasn’t one thing I may simply afford,” says Sevilio. Within the early 2000s, he started frequenting botecos (cheaper, no-frills bars, just like the Brazilian model of a dive) and took inspiration from the favored throwback cocktails, just like the Maria Mole, that have been being served.
Sevilio will not be the one bartender reintroducing the Maria Mole to visitors at higher-end cocktail bars and eating places. At Aiô, a Taiwanese restaurant with a severe bar program in São Paulo, bartender Maurício Barbosa serves his personal tackle the cocktail whereas honoring its roots. He describes the drink as “a traditionally marginalized cocktail.”
Barbosa’s model of the beloved basic introduces the wine-based Osborne brandy—“a drink nearer to Cognac,” as he places it—alongside vermouth (he makes use of each bianco and dry), cocoa bitters, darkish chocolate and a drop of saline answer. At Suru Bar in Rio de Janeiro, in the meantime, bartender Igor Renovato nonetheless makes use of Dreher and the standard bianco vermouth, however he provides a splash of Amaro Bianco from the San Basile distillery. He notes that some clients request their Maria Mole made with sherry brandy, “which provides the drink a chic twist.”
At São Paulo’s Pindura Bar, in the meantime, Sevilio swaps the standard brandy for Cognac, however, staying true to boteco traditions, retains it to simply two components—he makes use of bianco vermouth—diluted over ice and completed with an orange twist.
However whether or not the bartenders lean into the dessert-like nature of the drink, its simplicity or each, they’re devoted to retaining the Maria Mole alive. “Our job as bartenders isn’t simply mastering the classics,” says Barbosa. “It’s about elevating what’s ours.”
