NOVO FOGO FAQs
About Novo Fogo
Novo Fogo is an organic drinks company that makes cachaça, ready-to-drink organic cocktails, and non-alcoholic sparkling mate teas inspired by the flavors, culture, and joy of Brazil. Its organic sugarcane farm and distillery are in Morretes, Paraná, Brazil, and its U.S. headquarters is in Seattle, Washington.
Novo Fogo cachaça is made at the company’s own organic sugarcane farm and zero-waste distillery in Morretes, in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. The farm and distillery sit within the Atlantic Forest in the Serra do Mar coastal mountain region.
Novo Fogo’s U.S. headquarters is in Seattle, Washington. The company is a team with homes on two continents: its agricultural and production operations are in Brazil, while its U.S. team manages distribution, marketing, partnerships, and hospitality experiences.
“Novo Fogo” is Portuguese for “new fire.” The name reflects a modern expression of Brazil’s traditional sugarcane spirit and a company built around craftsmanship, environmental stewardship, and long-term thinking.
Novo Fogo makes full-strength organic cachaças, including clear, barrel-aged, Brazilian-wood-finished, flavored, bar-focused, and single-barrel expressions. It also makes ready-to-drink organic cocktails and non-alcoholic sparkling mate teas.
Yes. Novo Fogo’s cachaças and canned drinks are USDA-certified organic. Its organic approach extends beyond the ingredients to the sugarcane farm, distillery building, and production process.
Novo Fogo combines farm-to-bottle production, small-batch copper-pot distillation, Brazilian provenance, organic certification, zero-waste operations, and a carbon-negative company footprint. It also funds and operates The Un-Endangered Forest, a science-led project that restores threatened native tree species in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
SOFI TUKKER are equity partners in Novo Fogo. The music duo has collaborated with Novo Fogo on Passion Fruit Cachaça and sparkling mate teas while supporting the company’s Brazilian cultural programming and rainforest restoration work.
No. Cachaça remains central to the brand, but Novo Fogo now offers several ways to participate: full-strength spirits, lower-ABV ready-to-drink cocktails, and alcohol-free sparkling mate teas. The range is designed to make room for different drinking choices within the same social setting.
Cachaça Basics
Cachaça is Brazil’s national spirit. It is fermented and distilled from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice and must be made in Brazil. Its flavor can range from grassy, floral, fruity, and savory when unaged to spicy, creamy, nutty, and wood-driven when barrel-aged.
Cachaça is pronounced “kah-sha-sah.” The final “ç” sounds like an “s.”
Cachaça and rum are related sugarcane spirits, but they are distinct categories. Cachaça must be made in Brazil from fresh sugarcane juice. Rum may be made in many countries and is often produced from molasses or other sugarcane byproducts.
Both are commonly made from fresh sugarcane juice, but they come from different legal and cultural traditions. Cachaça must be made in Brazil, while rhum agricole is associated primarily with French Caribbean territories and follows its own production rules and regional styles.
Cachaça and tequila can both show strong agricultural character, but they come from different plants and places. Cachaça is a Brazilian spirit made from fresh sugarcane juice; tequila is a Mexican spirit made from blue agave.
Unaged cachaça often tastes bright, grassy, floral, fruity, lightly funky, and savory. Novo Fogo Silver emphasizes banana, passion fruit, lime blossom, sea salt, and sweet red pepper notes. Barrel aging can add vanilla, baking spice, coffee, chocolate, nuts, and a rounder texture.
Those flavors come from fresh sugarcane juice, fermentation, and the spirit’s agricultural character. Unlike a molasses-based spirit, cachaça can preserve vivid aromas from the cane, yeast, climate, and surrounding terroir.
Yes. Clear cachaça may be rested in a neutral vessel such as stainless steel, while aged cachaça develops color and flavor in wood. Brazil also has a distinctive tradition of aging cachaça in native woods, which can create flavors very different from conventional oak aging.
Yes. Well-made cachaça can be enjoyed neat, over a large cube, or in cocktails. Novo Fogo’s Barrel-Aged and Two-Woods expressions are especially suited to sipping, while Silver and Chameleon are versatile cocktail choices.
Often, yes. Cachaça works especially well in Daiquiris, Mojitos, punches, tiki drinks, and highballs, but its fresh-cane character will make the cocktail taste more grassy, aromatic, and distinctly Brazilian.
Aged cachaça can work in spirit-forward templates such as an Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Boulevardier, or Sazerac variation. Silver or lightly aged cachaça can also add a fresh, savory twist to drinks that normally use tequila or another clear spirit.
Silver Cachaça is the clearest introduction to Novo Fogo’s fresh sugarcane and rainforest terroir, and it is the classic choice for a Caipirinha. Chameleon is a good starting point for someone who prefers a touch of oak and wants one bottle that can move easily between shaken, highball, tiki, and stirred cocktails.
Production and Craft
Novo Fogo grows organic sugarcane, harvests it by hand, presses it within hours, ferments the fresh juice with wild yeast cultivated from its own cane, and distills the resulting sugarcane wine in small batches in a copper pot still. The spirit is then rested in stainless steel or matured in wood, depending on the expression.
The sugarcane comes from Novo Fogo’s own organic fields in Morretes, Paraná, within Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. The coastal mountain environment contributes to the fruit, floral, mineral, and savory character of its terroir.
Novo Fogo’s field team cuts the cane by hand with machetes. The company does not burn the fields before harvest and does not rely on chemical herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers.
Freshness matters because sugarcane begins changing after it is cut. Novo Fogo transports the harvested cane to the nearby distillery and presses it within hours so the juice retains the clean agricultural character of the field.
After the juice is filtered, Novo Fogo adds wild yeast cultivated from its own sugarcane. Fermentation takes less than 24 hours and produces a sugarcane wine of approximately 7% to 9% alcohol by volume before distillation.
Novo Fogo heats the fermented sugarcane wine with steam and distills it in a copper pot still. The distillers keep the flavorful “heart” of the run and repurpose the “heads” and “tails” as fuel, fire starter, and cleaner.
A 1,200-liter batch of sugarcane wine yields about 130 liters of distilled cachaça. This selective process preserves the desired portion of the distillate while giving the distilling team close control over quality.
Silver Cachaça rests in chemically inert stainless steel for one year. The resting period helps the spirit become smoother without adding wood flavor or color, so the fresh sugarcane and terroir remain at the center.
Novo Fogo uses repurposed American oak bourbon barrels that are taken apart, sanded, and re-toasted. Its Two-Woods expressions combine oak aging with finishing or additional aging in Brazilian woods such as amburana, castanheira do Pará, and araribá.
No. Novo Fogo does not chill-filter its cachaças because that process can remove flavorful compounds. If a bottle becomes cold and develops small clouds, that natural flocculation is not a defect; gently shaking the bottle should make the clouds disappear.
Novo Fogo repurposes the organic byproducts of farming and distillation. Sugarcane pulp becomes furnace fuel and compost; other organic material becomes fertilizer or tractor fuel; unusable distillate is reused; and distillation vapor helps preheat the next batch, reducing still energy consumption.
Novo Fogo uses sugarcane bagasse as furnace fuel, reuses distillation vapor to preheat the next batch, and designed the distillery on a mountain slope so gravity can move liquid between rooms with less electrical equipment. Vapor reuse reduces the stills’ energy consumption by 22%.
Choosing a Novo Fogo Cachaça
Silver is Novo Fogo’s clearest expression of fresh organic sugarcane. Rested for one year in stainless steel, it is floral, tropical, savory, and lightly funky, with notes of banana, passion fruit, lime blossom, sea salt, and sweet red pepper. It is bottled at 40% ABV.
Novo Fogo Passion Fruit Cachaça, created with the band SOFI TUKKER, begins with Silver Cachaça and adds passion fruit, orange peel, vanilla, a touch of pure cane sugar, and oak flavor from Novo Fogo barrels. It is bottled at 40% ABV.
Barrel-Aged Cachaça matures in reworked and re-toasted 53-gallon American oak barrels for two years. The spirit keeps its sugarcane identity while developing flavors of banana bread, chocolate, cinnamon bark, coffee, and black pepper. It is bottled at 40% ABV.
Silver Bar Strength intensifies the tropical, floral, savory profile of standard Silver Cachaça at 43% ABV. It comes in a bartender-friendly 1-liter bottle with a compact footprint, taller neck, and slimmer midsection designed to fit a bar well and handle efficiently during service.
Chameleon is a lightly aged, highly versatile cachaça that bridges Silver and Barrel-Aged. After one year in repurposed American oak, it retains fresh sugarcane character while adding hazelnut, vanilla, sweet and spicy herbs, and lively citrus. It is bottled at 43% ABV.
Colibri, Portuguese for “hummingbird,” moves between repurposed oak and amburana barrels. Oak contributes vanilla and toffee, while amburana adds cinnamon and chestnut notes. Banana, passion fruit, and a playful snickerdoodle finish round out this fragrant 42% ABV expression.
Graciosa is aged for two years in repurposed oak and finished for 18 months in repurposed castanheira do Pará, or Brazil nut wood, barrels. At 42% ABV, it offers pecan and orchid aromas, a creamy cherry-custard palate, and soft clove and anise on the finish.
Tanager combines repurposed oak with araribá, or Brazilian zebrawood, reclaimed from a demolition project. The wood gives the 42% ABV cachaça a natural red color, mountain earthiness, tropical fruit, grass, cinnamon bark, and other holiday-spice notes.
The Two-Woods series combines familiar oak aging with Brazilian native woods to show the diversity of cachaça maturation and raise awareness for rainforest conservation. The current family includes Tanager, Graciosa, and Colibri.
Silver Cachaça is the classic choice because its fresh sugarcane, floral, fruit, salt, and pepper notes remain vivid beside lime and sugar. Bar Strength Silver creates a bolder version, while Passion Fruit Cachaça makes an easy tropical variation.
Silver is ideal for Caipirinhas, sours, and bright shaken drinks. Chameleon is the most flexible all-around cocktail bottle. Bar Strength is designed to stay expressive in tiki drinks and other ingredient-heavy recipes. Barrel-Aged and the Two-Woods expressions are strong choices for stirred classics and richer cocktails.
Barrel-Aged offers an approachable entry into sipping cachaça. Colibri is especially aromatic and dessert-spiced; Graciosa is creamy and nutty; and Tanager is earthy, fruity, and assertive. The best choice depends on whether you prefer oak, fragrance, creaminess, or spice.
Silver, Passion Fruit, and Barrel-Aged are bottled at 40% ABV; Colibri, Graciosa, and Tanager at 42% ABV; and Silver Bar Strength and Chameleon at 43% ABV. Limited and Single Barrel releases may vary, so check the bottle label or current product page.
Silver Bar Strength is the purpose-built option for high-volume cocktail service. Its one-liter bottle is shaped to fit a bar well and handle comfortably, while its 43% ABV gives the cachaça enough intensity to remain clear in complex or heavily flavored drinks.
Cocktails and Serving
A Caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail, made with cachaça, fresh lime, sugar, and ice. It is simple, bright, aromatic, and one of the clearest ways to experience the flavor of fresh-cane cachaça.
Use 2 ounces of Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça, half of a lime, and 1 tablespoon of superfine sugar. Remove the lime’s white center pith, slice the remaining lime, muddle it with the sugar, fill the glass with ice, add cachaça, shake briefly, and return the entire drink to the glass.
Caipirinha is commonly pronounced “kai-pee-REEN-yah,” with a soft “ny” sound near the end.
The thick white center can add excessive bitterness when muddled. Removing it keeps the drink focused on fresh lime juice, aromatic peel oils, sugar, and cachaça.
Yes. The lime, sugar, and cachaça template works well with the addition of berries, passion fruit, pineapple, mango, and other seasonal fruit.
Silver works well in Batidas, sours, tropical drinks, a Brazilian Cosmo, a Garden Gimlet, and fresh highballs. Its fruit, floral, grass, salt, and pepper notes also make it useful anywhere a recipe needs a bright agricultural spirit.
Chameleon is built for versatility. Novo Fogo uses it in drinks such as a Brazilian Mule, Rabo de Galo, Brazilian Highball, Brazilian Bees’ Knees, and Brazilian 75. Its light oak character works in both shaken and stirred formats.
Barrel-Aged is a natural fit for a Brazilian Old Fashioned, Morretes Manhattan, Boulevardier variation, spirit-forward highball, or a richer tropical drink. It can also replace rum or whiskey in recipes where oak, spice, and texture matter.
Bright Silver cachaça pairs naturally with citrus, grilled seafood, ceviche, salty snacks, tropical fruit, and spicy food. Aged expressions work well with roasted meats, chocolate, coffee desserts, nuts, warm spices, and richer grilled flavors.
It depends on the drink. A Caipirinha and most highballs should be cold. Sipping cachaça can be served neat at a comfortable room temperature or over a large cube. Avoid storing the bottle in extreme heat or direct sunlight.
Keep the bottle upright, tightly closed, and away from heat and direct sunlight. Distilled spirits do not require refrigeration, but minimizing air exposure and temperature swings helps preserve aroma and flavor after opening.
Novo Fogo maintains an online recipe collection organized by cachaça expression and ready-to-drink product. The collection includes Caipirinhas, Batidas, highballs, sours, tiki drinks, and Brazilian interpretations of familiar classics.
Ready-to-Drink Organic Cocktails
They are carbonated, spirit-based cocktails made with Novo Fogo organic cachaça and tropical flavors. They are designed to deliver a full-flavored, not-too-sweet cocktail without mixing or measuring.
The current lineup includes Lime, Mango, Passion Fruit, and Açaí Berry. Lime, Mango, and Passion Fruit are full-strength 9% ABV cocktails, while Açaí Berry is a lighter 4% ABV option.
Yes. All four ready-to-drink cocktails are USDA-certified organic and made with natural ingredients.
Lime, Mango, and Passion Fruit are 9% ABV in 12-ounce cans with about 2 shots per can. Açaí Berry is 4% ABV.
They are designed to be full-flavored but not overly sweet. Carbonation, cachaça’s savory character, fresh fruit flavors, and lime acidity help keep the drinks balanced.
Serve them cold directly from the can or pour them over ice. A squeeze of fresh lime can add extra brightness, especially to Lime, Mango, or Passion Fruit.
No. They are ready to drink as packaged. You can still personalize them with ice, citrus, fruit, herbs, or a longer sparkling mixer if you prefer.
A handmade Caipirinha is built fresh with muddled lime, sugar, cachaça, and ice. Novo Fogo’s canned cocktails are carbonated, shelf-stable, and available in several tropical flavors, making them more convenient for travel, gatherings, and occasions without a full bar setup.
The Açaí Berry cocktail combines berry and tropical-fruit character with a hint of cacao. It was inspired by a Brazilian açaí bowl and is formulated at 4% ABV for a lighter drinking option.
Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Mate Teas
Novo Fogo’s sparkling mate teas are alcohol-free, lightly carbonated drinks inspired by southern Brazil’s erva mate culture. They combine organic Brazilian mate with tropical flavors, natural cane sugar, and a moderate amount of naturally occurring caffeine.
Yes. The sparkling mate teas contain no alcohol. They are designed for people who want a flavorful social drink without alcohol.
The current lineup includes Original, Mango, Passion Fruit, and Açaí Berry. Original is lightly sweetened with vanilla; Mango includes bright lime; Passion Fruit includes ginger; and Açaí Berry pairs açaí with blueberry.
A 12-ounce can has approximately 40 to 70 milligrams of naturally occurring caffeine. Because the caffeine comes from tea, the exact amount can vary.
Per can, Original has 20 calories and 4 grams of natural cane sugar; Mango has 35 calories and 6 grams; Passion Fruit has 30 calories and 6 grams; and Açaí Berry has 35 calories and 6 grams.
No. They are not energy drinks. They contain naturally occurring caffeine from mate tea and avoid the stimulant-heavy positioning of most energy drinks.
Novo Fogo’s sparkling mate teas include reishi and lion’s mane at 150 milligrams each.
Serve it cold directly from the can or over ice. It can be enjoyed on its own during the day or as an alcohol-free option at parties, concerts, meals, and other social occasions.
Yes. Novo Fogo recommends pairing its mate teas with Passion Fruit Cachaça for a simple Brazilian-inspired highball. They can also add tea, fruit, carbonation, and light sweetness to other long drinks.
Anyone limiting caffeine should review the can label and account for the listed 40 to 70 milligrams per can. People who are pregnant, caffeine-sensitive, taking medication, or managing a health condition should follow guidance from their healthcare professional.
Sustainability and The Un-Endangered Forest
Novo Fogo’s organic approach covers the sugarcane fields, ingredients, distillery, production process, and finished products. The company avoids chemical herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers to protect workers, land, surrounding biodiversity, and the agricultural character of the spirit.
Novo Fogo’s farm and distillery are zero waste operations. Organic byproducts are reused as compost, fertilizer, tractor fuel, furnace fuel, fire starter, cleaner, or inputs that reduce energy use in the next production cycle.
Novo Fogo’s operations remove or offset more carbon dioxide than they emit. Its approach combines low-waste production, organic agriculture, forested land management, reforestation, emissions measurement, and purchasing carbon offsets for emissions it cannot yet eliminate.
Novo Fogo is a carbon-negative company with a carbon-neutral supply chain. It measures emissions from suppliers, packaging, freight, company operations, distributors, and retailers, then offsets the resulting footprint.
The Atlantic Forest, or Floresta Atlântica, is a highly biodiverse ecosystem that once stretched along much of Brazil’s coast. About 85% has been cleared, yet the remaining forest still supports extraordinary plant, bird, amphibian, reptile, and vertebrate diversity.
The Un-Endangered Forest is Novo Fogo’s science-led legacy reforestation project. It locates 50 species of threatened native “mother trees,” collects seeds, grows saplings at a partner nursery, and plants them in carefully selected permanent homes across Novo Fogo and partner properties.
Novo Fogo initiated The Un-Endangered Forest in 2018.
The project is funded with 1% of Novo Fogo’s company revenue through the 1% For the Planet organization. That support helps fund seed collection, nursery work, planting, landowner training, scientific guidance, and long-term tracking.
The project’s goal is to restore 50 threatened native tree species through conservation and agroforestry work.
The project is guided by Dr. Sílvia Ziller, Executive Director of the Horus Institute and a specialist in native-species restoration. Her team works with botanists, Indigenous communities, local landowners, and nursery partner EKÔA Park.
The project prioritizes biodiversity, location, context, and long-term survival instead of simply maximizing the number of trees planted. Botanists identify rare mother trees, collect seeds at the right time, grow saplings, and match each plant with an appropriate permanent site.
The project uses a custom mobile app to follow seedlings from the forest to the nursery and their permanent planting sites. Planters register seedlings, upload photos, report health checks, and confirm locations, creating a record of growth and challenges over time.
Novo Fogo uses legally sourced, reclaimed, repurposed, or sustainably grown Brazilian woods in its Two-Woods program. Examples include araribá reclaimed from a demolition project and amburana from a sustainable growing facility certified by Brazil’s environmental agency.
Buying, Shipping, and Availability
Novo Fogo is available through its online store, licensed retailers, bars, and restaurants. Use the “Buy Now” retailer finder to search nearby locations, and call ahead to confirm that the specific product you want is in stock.
In most U.S. states, eligible Novo Fogo spirits can be ordered through the company’s website. A third-party platform securely processes the transaction and routes it to a licensed brick-and-mortar retailer that fulfills and ships the order.
No. Novo Fogo is an importer, not a licensed retailer, so it cannot ship spirits to consumers itself. Online spirits orders placed on novofogo.com are fulfilled by licensed retailers through the company’s third-party commerce partner.
Availability depends on state law, product type, retailer coverage, and the delivery address. Enter the shipping address during checkout to see whether the selected product can be delivered to that location.
Yes. Alcohol purchases are limited to adults age 21 and older in the United States. Checkout, delivery, identification, and signature requirements are determined by applicable law and the licensed retailer or delivery provider.
Ask the store, bar, or restaurant to request Novo Fogo from its distributor. Novo Fogo also publishes a state-by-state distributor list that can help a licensed account identify the correct wholesaler.
Damaged or defective items may be replaced or refunded. Contact [email protected] with the order information and details about the problem.
Replacements and refunds are limited to defective or damaged items. Review the policy shown during checkout and contact the order team if you have a question about a specific purchase.
International availability varies by country and local importer. Use Novo Fogo’s contact form to ask about a specific market, or check with specialty spirits retailers in that country.
Novo Fogo maintains a “Find Your Novo Fogo Distributor” list on its Buy Now page. The list identifies the distributor or broker by state.
Trade and Hospitality
Start with Novo Fogo’s state distributor list, then contact the assigned wholesaler or broker. If the correct contact is unclear, use Novo Fogo’s website contact form and identify the business name, location, license type, and products of interest.
Silver Bar Strength is designed for bartenders and high-volume wells, while the Single Barrel program is designed for bars and retailers seeking an exclusive selection. The broader line also supports by-the-glass pours, cocktail menus, flights, retail education, and premium gifting.
The one-liter bottle provides more volume, a compact footprint, an easy-to-hold shape, and 43% ABV intensity that stays expressive in sours, tiki drinks, punches, and other ingredient-heavy cocktails.
A participating bar or retailer selects a specific barrel with its own flavor profile. The resulting limited bottling can include information about the barrel and may offer customized neck booklets, logo-engraved corks, and the original barrel head.
An individual Novo Fogo Single Barrel yields roughly 240 bottles on average, but actual yield and proof can vary. Confirm the final bottle count, ABV, price, and customization schedule for the selected barrel.
Novo Fogo’s recipe library provides menu-ready starting points across Silver, Chameleon, Barrel-Aged, and Two-Woods expressions. Trade accounts should contact the brand or distributor to ask about current menu development, staff education, tasting, and promotional support.
A simple framework is: Silver for the clearest fresh-cane experience; Chameleon for versatile light oak; Barrel-Aged for approachable oak and spice; and Two-Woods for distinctive Brazilian wood, sipping, and premium exploration. Passion Fruit adds an easy flavored option, while Bar Strength serves cocktail-focused buyers.
Novo Fogo offers extensive product, recipe, process, and sustainability information online. Availability of live training, samples, point-of-sale materials, and market support may vary, so trade accounts should confirm current options with their distributor or Novo Fogo representative.
Use Novo Fogo’s website contact form and identify the type of request, organization, market, timing, and proposed collaboration. Press, sponsorship, event, and partnership inquiries should be routed to the appropriate current team member before commitments are made.