Apparently, the Ipanema has been around for aeons – a sufficiently long time to be mocked as a mere mock Caipirinha. Pffh… Both iconic Brazilian drinks share the muddled limes and cane sugar but this refreshing & alcohol-free cocktail is a classic in its own right and never tacky. Here, I have fiddled with the original recipe (½ lime muddled with 2 teaspoons raw brown cane sugar, shake with 4cl passionfruit juice & ice cubes, strain & top with Ginger Ale) for a less sweet and even more invigorating zingy version.
Created as a thirst-quenching (beach) drink and aptly named for the famous beach of the Ipanema district in Rio de Janeiro (lore has it that it was either served there first or that its opaque appearance inspired the comparison to Ipanema’s Tupi origin of ‘cloudy water’). Even if we are hundreds of miles away from a tropical beach, there is hardly anything better than sitting outside on a mellow summer evening, sipping one of these with Getz & Gilberto’s Girl from Ipanema in the background. Caipirinha, who?
More cocktails & drinks to sip in the last of the summer sunshine: Americano, Vesper, the perfect Bloody Mary, an elderberry Cosmopolitan & for some liquid Southern France sunshine, Vin d’orange. Santé, cheers, bottoms up, Prost, cin cin.
Ipanema
½ lime, cut into quarters (4 pieces)
¼ cup (60ml) good passionfruit / passion fruit / Maracuja juice
crushed ice
Ginger Ale (regular, not light)
lime slice
Muddle the lime at the bottom of a tumbler, fill the glass about half to three-quarters with crushed ice, add the passion fruit juice and top up with Ginger Ale. Serve with a thin slice of lime floating in the glass (for decorative purposes) and a brightly coloured straw. Happy hour!
Ipanema
½ Limette, geviertelt
60ml Maracujasaft (guter, kein aromatisiertes Zuckerwasser)
crushed Eis
Ginger Ale
dünne Limettenscheibe
Limettenstücke in einem Tumbler zerdrücken und das Glas zur Hälfte bis Dreiviertel voll mit crushed Eis füllen, den Maracujasaft hinzufügen und mit Ginger Ale auffüllen. Eine dünne Limettenscheibe (zur Dekoration) ins Glas geben und mit einem kurzen Strohhalm servieren. Happy Hour!
thejameskitchen 
I really like the fiery ginger and tangy passion fruit in this, I will be making a non-alcoholic version x
Hi Deena, yes, you must, this is simply the best non-alcoholic cocktail for summer. Enjoy and don’t forget the music. N xx
This looks so good. I love passion fruit even though I don’t like sweet drinks. This is seriously one of the only sweet drink I could not just tolerate, but truly enjoy…And it doesn’t seem hard to do. Yum! 🙂
Thanks, Amanda! Same here, it’s so much more refreshing without the extra sugar in it & a good reason to like passionfruit juice again.
What do you do with passionfruit? Mine goes either in fruit salad or a pudding, that is pretty much it. N xx
I rarely see passion fruit around here and when I do, it’s usually just the pulp so I’ll make drinks or milkshakes. I wait until I’m in the Dominican Republic to just eat them straight up. 🙂 Salads and pudding sound like a wonderful way to enjoy these beauties.