04.17.08 5:00 AM CDT
• Food/Drink
• David Pfister
Rio de Janeiro is a thoroughly mythologized destination. To survey the city in a blog entry would be painfully trite: thongs, beaches, soccer, samba, the Cristo, thongs. But what about drink? Of course cachaça is the liquor most closely associated with Brazil and the caipirinha, consisting of lime, sugar, ice and cachaça, the cocktail. However, beer is the drink of choice in bistros, at beach-side kiosks, even on the street. Shopp (pronounced sho-pee) is the go-to brew. Not a specific brand, shopp is generic and indicates the manner in which it’s served: on draft, very cold, and in a short glass. When asking for a shopp, you get what you get, meaning an establishment typically serves a single domestic brand like Skol or Itaipava on draft (usually a pilsner), complemented by five or so brands in bottles. In spite of beer’s ubiquitous presence—when I was there, my infinitely generous host Paulo insisted I drink one in his car on the way to the airport—there was, inversely, a distinct and equally refreshing lack of drunks.
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