Chameleon
Cachaça
Morretes, Brazil
43% ABV
Novo Fogo Chameleon is the best of both worlds – it marries the crystal-clear, fresh notes of a silver cachaça with the warmth and vanilla of a cachaça from the barrel.
VAT included. Free delivery on orders €30+
tasting notes
Hazelnuts
Fresh Herbs
Floral
Vanilla
Citrus
Herbal
Flavour Intensity
Suggested Use
On its Own
In a Cocktail
What's in it
- Sugar Cane
Recommended Pour
Miami Vice
Welcome to Miami! Pour 60 ml of Chameleon, 45 ml of coconut cream, 30 ml of pineapple juice, 15 ml of strawberry purée and 15 ml of pineapple purée into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake very well – release all of your hidden rhythm! – and then strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with a sprig of mint, and savour.
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Tasting Notes
- Hazelnuts
- Fresh Herbs
- Floral
When you smell Chameleon, you’ll encounter aromas of fresh herbs and flowers, balanced by a medley of hazelnuts.
- Vanilla
- Citrus
- Herbal
When you taste Chameleon, the sweet and spiced herb notes will be deepened by a hint of vanilla, ending with a lively citrus kick.
Flavour Intensity
Morretes, Brazil
Novo Fogo’s distillery and sugarcane plantation is found in Morretes – a small town in southern Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. With Morretes having over 350 years of cachaça-making history, Brazilians often refer to cachaça simply as “Morretiana.” Morretes sits above the Bay of Paranaguá and below the peak of Mount Marumbi, in the heart of the Serra do Mar region. Its high elevation slows the heart rate; its clean, sweet air is fresh and pure; and the dynamic coastal weather makes the land rich and fertile.
Grown in the rainforest
Novo Fogo’s distillery and sugarcane plantation are in the heart of Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest, where the air is sweet and pure, and carries with it all the aromas of the lime trees, banana trees, and exotic flowers of the rainforest itself. The sugarcane that grows on the plantation absorbs these aromas along with the fresh salt breeze from the sea, and Novo Fogo’s low-intervention production methods help its cachaças retain all of these scents and flavours. While barrel-aged cachaças can often find the fresh flavours over-ridden by the warmth, woody, spiced flavours given to them by the ageing process, Chameleon manages to balance freshness with warmth, flowers with spice, to reveal a glorious blend of aromas and flavours.
Finding the perfect balance
After the organically-grown sugarcane has been harvested using machetes, and the pressed juice fermented with natural wild yeast, the juice is distilled in a copper alembic pot still. The heart is retained, and then the cachaça is aged for one year in repurposed American oak barrels. Any longer than a year, and the flavours from the oak would take precedence; any less, and the cachaça would reveal mostly the herbal notes of a silver cachaça. This ageing balance produces a beautiful balance, with vanilla meeting fresh herbs and flowers, making this cachaça incredibly versatile – a true chameleon.
The Brains Behind It
Falling in love with a country
Novo Fogo was founded by Dragos Axinte, alongside Torres Viruel and Dr. Agenor Maccari. Originally from Romania, Dragos moved to the U.S. as a teenager and studied English and chemistry at the University of Washington. After visiting Brazil for business, he and his wife, Emily, became captivated by the Brazilian rainforest and the Brazilian people’s passion for soccer and cachaça. Dragos saw the production of cachaça as a unique business opportunity that could also be used to support positive environmental change, and started Novo Fogo in 2009.
More on the Brand
Agenor
Dragos
Torres
