Rabo de Galo
A Rabo de Galo is 60ml of cachaça, 20ml of sweet vermouth and 15ml of Cynar, with two drops of Angostura if you like, built over ice in a rocks glass, stirred for 15 to 20 seconds and finished with an expressed orange twist. About 3.0 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s, which name Cinzano Rosso as the vermouth. The name is Brazilian Portuguese for rooster’s tail, a word-for-word rendering of cocktail. The drink is usually traced to the mid-1950s, after Cinzano opened a factory in São Paulo and sweet vermouth began to meet the local cachaça, at roughly two parts cachaça to one of vermouth. Cynar came later, mainly in São Paulo bars. Cachaça brings grassy cane, the vermouth softens it, and the artichoke amaro gives the drink an earthy, bitter floor. It is stronger than it looks.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange twist expressed over the surface and dropped in
Ingredients
60ml
Unaged, at around 40% ABV. Cachaça is Brazilian and must be made from cane juice, which gives it the green, grassy edge the vermouth and Cynar are built against. A white rum makes a pleasant drink that is not this one.
20ml
At about 16% ABV; the IBA names Cinzano Rosso. Caramel and dried fruit that soften the cane spirit. Keep it in the fridge once opened and finish it within a month.
15ml
At 16.5% ABV. The artichoke amaro gives the drink its floor: an earthy, savoury bitterness that sits under the vermouth and dries the finish.
2 drops (optional)
Optional in the IBA’s recipe. Two drops of clove and gentian meet the Cynar from another direction and sharpen the drink without adding a taste of their own.
Instructions
Add the cachaça, sweet vermouth and Cynar to a rocks glass.
Add two drops of Angostura, if using.
Add one large cube, or fill the glass with cubed ice.
Stir for 15 to 20 seconds.
Express an orange twist over the surface and drop it in.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; method ours). Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Use an unaged cachaça. Its grassy cane character is what the vermouth and Cynar are set against. An aged one is good in its own right and pulls the drink towards a Manhattan. Keep the Cynar. Cachaça and vermouth alone is the older drink, softer and sweeter, because nothing in the glass pushes back. The amaro’s earthy bitterness dries the finish. Build it over one large cube if you have one and stir for 15 to 20 seconds. At nearly 100ml of spirit and wine it is a strong drink, and slow dilution is part of how it is drunk.
Behind the Rabo de Galo
Flavour Profile
The Name
Rabo de galo is Portuguese for rooster’s tail, which is what cocktail means if you take the English word apart the same way.
The drink is usually traced to the mid-1950s, after Cinzano opened a factory in São Paulo. Brazilians were not much taken with vermouth neat, the story goes, and mixing it with cachaça helped sell it. It was poured as a shot in pés-sujos, plain corner bars, at roughly two parts cachaça to one of vermouth.
Cachaça Is Not Rum
The legal line matters, and the flavour line matters more.
Cachaça must come from Brazil, be made from sugarcane juice and be bottled between 38% and 48% ABV. Most rum is distilled from molasses, the syrup left once sugar has been crystallised out. Fresh juice keeps a green, faintly vegetal character that molasses does not, and the vermouth and Cynar are built against it.
Substitute a white rum and the drink is pleasant and unrecognisable. A rhum agricole, also made from cane juice, gets much closer.
What the Cynar Does
Fifteen millilitres of artichoke amaro sounds like an odd corrective. It is the ingredient that makes the modern drink.
Cachaça is grassy and slightly sharp; sweet vermouth is caramel, dried fruit and sugar. Left alone the two agree rather than argue, and the result is soft. Cynar’s bitterness is earthy and savoury rather than bright, nothing like Campari’s, and it lands under both, giving the drink a floor and drying the finish. At 16.5% ABV it adds bitterness without adding much strength.
Beside the Caipirinha and the Manhattan
The Rabo de Galo beside our Caipirinha, Manhattan and Black Manhattan
Spirit
- Rabo de Galo
- 60ml cachaça
- Caipirinha
- 60ml cachaça
- Manhattan
- 50ml rye
- Black Manhattan
- 50ml rye
Modifier
- Rabo de Galo
- 20ml sweet vermouth, 15ml Cynar
- Caipirinha
- One lime, four teaspoons caster sugar
- Manhattan
- 20ml sweet vermouth
- Black Manhattan
- 20ml Averna
Bitters
- Rabo de Galo
- Two drops Angostura, optional
- Caipirinha
- None
- Manhattan
- One dash Angostura
- Black Manhattan
- One dash each Angostura and orange
Serve
- Rabo de Galo
- Built over ice
- Caipirinha
- Over crushed ice
- Manhattan
- Up, in a coupe
- Black Manhattan
- Up, in a coupe
UK units
- Rabo de Galo
- About 3.0
- Caipirinha
- About 2.4
- Manhattan
- About 2.3
- Black Manhattan
- About 2.6
| Element | Rabo de Galo | Caipirinha | Manhattan | Black Manhattan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit | 60ml cachaça | 60ml cachaça | 50ml rye | 50ml rye |
| Modifier | 20ml sweet vermouth, 15ml Cynar | One lime, four teaspoons caster sugar | 20ml sweet vermouth | 20ml Averna |
| Bitters | Two drops Angostura, optional | None | One dash Angostura | One dash each Angostura and orange |
| Serve | Built over ice | Over crushed ice | Up, in a coupe | Up, in a coupe |
| UK units | About 3.0 | About 2.4 | About 2.3 | About 2.6 |
The Caipirinha is Brazil’s other cachaça drink, sharp and long on crushed ice. The Rabo de Galo is the stirred one, and in structure it is a Manhattan with cane in place of rye. The Black Manhattan swaps the vermouth for an amaro altogether; the Rabo de Galo keeps both.
How to Serve It
Built in a rocks glass over ice, stirred, with an orange twist.
Brazil pours it every way, from a warm shot in a corner bar to a stirred drink in a cocktail bar. The IBA version is the considered one; the shot is the older habit.
For cachaça with lime and sugar, make a Caipirinha; for rye with an amaro in place of vermouth, a Black Manhattan.
Make it at home
The Spirit
CachaçaCachaça is Brazil's cane spirit, distilled from fermented fresh sugar cane juice instead of molasses, which gives it a grassy, green taste. Brazilian law reserves the name for spirit made in Brazil at 38 to 48% ABV with no more than six grams of sugar per litre. It is the base of the Caipirinha; our two recipes assume 40%.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Rabo de Galo?
Is cachaça the same as rum?
What does the Cynar add?
Does a Rabo de Galo need the Cynar?
Why is it called Rabo de Galo?
Is it built or stirred?
How strong is a Rabo de Galo?
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 10 October 2026