Termo Tecnica LTDA

History

It can be said that the chemist Octávio Carvalheira has his story related to cachaças. Most of his professional life was dedicated to helping other companies produce sugar, alcohol and "aguardente". Since November, 1949, when he was hired by the plant "Rio Una", located in Barreiros-PE, to run the nearby anidro alcohol distillery, and, after that, as a sugar and alcohol chemist of the two plants of Group Othon ("Rio Una" and "Santo André") and, from 1961 to 1967, director of the four plants of the same group.

From 1967 on, he continued linked to the sugar and alcohol industry, as consultant of several plants and distilleries. Managing Tecal - Sugar Technology Ltda., established in 1975, he lead more than 60 northeastern companies of sugar, alcohol and "aguardente" (sugar cane spirits), with projects for PROÁLCOOL.

It was after a trip to Cuba, country that he visited in May 1993, to take part at the Seminario International Del Azúcar e Derivados de la Cana, that he suggested to Termo Técnica Ltd., a company from Pernambuco that has Eduardo Carvalheira and Fernando Remígio in leading positions, the acquisition of the technology to use beer yeast in the human feeding from the Cuban Institute of Investigaciones of Derived los of la Cana of Azúcar - I.C.I.D.C.A.

His son, Eduardo Carvalheira, always liked making his own experiments with cachaça, promoting infusions of tropical fruits and regional herbs, searching continuously a technology to improve the quality of sugar cane spirits produced with raw sugar cane in Pernambuco.

After that, Eduardo and Fernando decided to visit Cuba and hire technicians from that institute to develop in Recife the technology of leavenings. Then PROLEV production of yeasts and other dietary foods produced by Termo Técnica came to life.

In 1995, there was the great chance to start the commercial production of aged cachaça, conceived by Eduardo. That year, thousands of white oak barrels, each one with 150 or 200 liters of capacity, were acquired. So far they had been used only in rum aging process.

With the oak barrels, Eduardo and Fernando obtained with technicians from Fidel Castro's island the cachaça aging technology, similar to rum's aging. Then they started the aging process of Cachaça Carvalheira.

The whole work was supervised by Cuban technicians, step by step. It resulted in a differentiated product in the regional market. It doesn't receive any strange product or pigment, being bottled as it leaves the barrel, after a minimum period of three years, filtration and quality control analyses.

Releases:

In 2001, CARVALHEIRA LEMON FLOWER was introduced to the regional market. Composed raw cachaça, with natural aroma of lemon, to be drunk pure, frozen or as "caipirinha", as it's best known in national and international markets.

Carvalheira intends to release more four types of cachaças "special selection" in 2002 and 2003, all aged in oak barrels, already in final tests before launching, whose marks and compositions are discriminated below:

• Composed Cachaça CARVALHEIRA PORTO RECIFE: cachaça aged, with infusion of fruit raisins and sugar, 38% alcohol, at 20°C, well appreciated by the female consumers;
• Composed Cachaça CARVALHEIRA CINNAMON: aged cachaça, with natural cinnamon aroma and 38% alcohol, at 20°C, good for cocktails and cookery;
• Composed Cachaça CARVALHEIRA RAÍZES (ROOTS): aged cachaça, with roots' infusion for a period of six months, 38% alcohol, at20°C, dry and sophisticated;
• CACHAÇA CARVALHEIRA GRAO FINO (FINE GRAIN): raw cachaça aged for a minimum period of ten (10) years, 38% alcohol, at 20°C - Special Premium Reserve - thickened and velvety.

Name Origin:

The name - Carvalheira - is homage to the family, whose founder came from Portugal to Brazil in middle 19th century.

This name is also very suggestive, for it means a great oak tree, with lots of leaves.

Labels on bottles and packing contain a photograph of family's first generation in Pernambuco, in 1893.

Elegance

Carvalheira, an authentic drink from Pernambuco, does not only care about the selection and aging process of cachaça, but it cares about the originality of its label and packing sober design, of extreme elegance, always reserving in its boxes a noble space to evocate the best of our cultural traditions and arts, besides bringing drink recipes using cachaças Carvalheira:

• Brown Caipirinha - with sugar and lemon and aged cachaça;
• Gabriela - with coke, lemon, cinnamon and aged cachaça;
• "Caiana" sugar cane - with sugar cane broth, lemon, pineapple and aged cachaça;
• Pure Passion - with Flower of Lemon cachaça, lemon and mint.

Quality

When you distill a wine or leavened must to make aguardente, despite the fact that the fermentation was very regular and the distillation operation was perfect, the result doesn't have a pleasant, soft or "round" flavor.

Through natural ageing, in oak barrels, Cachaça Carvalheira, as a result of complex physical and chemical reactions that take place inside the barrels, among the diverse components formed in fermentation and in presence of oxygen, that penetrates through wood pores, together with natural oak extracts, mainly the "tanning bark", its sensorial qualities improve significantly: they acquire a better aroma, aged gold color, fine and velvety flavor.

It's know that by aging there is a deep reduction in alcoholic degree and original product volume, however by the influence of the years, very small portions of secondary products appear, they are added to the main esters, also originated during the conservation, and give to Cachaça Carvalheira a set of noble qualities. To the result is given the suggestive name of "round taste" and "amazing flavor".

The identity and quality standards of Carvalheira cachaças are those defined by a Federal Decree No 2,314 of 04/09/97, article 91 from Agriculture and Supplying Ministry.

Suppliers

Raw cachaça for aging, is acquired from small and medium producers from the country cities of Pernambuco, after rigid quality control and origin selection.

Distribution

The distribution in regional market of Cachaça Carvalheira, started in 1988, with three years of aging. In February 2001, Flower of Lemon the distribution of Carvalheira Sugar Cane Spirit was initiated.