How the rooster’s tail migrated from São Paulo bars to the world’s haute cocktail party

In São Paulo bars in the 1950s, cachaça and vermouth were mixed in a shot glass to reproduce a newly created drink. In the client’s hands, consumption followed the same ritual as the pinga, an old familiar to Brazilians — part of the liquid was poured in honor of the saint and another was poured into the mouth. A bang with the glass on the counter ended the performance. That’s how the rooster’s tail was spread, born and raised in the capital of São Paulo.

But the recipe, which soon became mandatory in the city’s dirty feet, did not have an organic origin. It all started with a move by the factory of vermouth Cinzano, from Italy, which landed in Brazil to wet the beaks of immigrants who lived here. What they didn’t expect was that the Italian palate was already won over by the local brandy.

To recover customers and win over Brazilian cachaceiros, the company decided to combine the best of both worlds and created specific shot glasses for the new mixture, with markings that indicated the proportion of each drink.

With an eye on the habits of the country, he reinforced the bottom of the little glasses with a thick layer of glass so that they would not break when knocked on the counter. The name chosen was a literal translation of what the drink was — a cocktail, or “cocktail” in English, and therefore a rooster’s tail.

Nearly seven decades later, the mixture lost its reputation as an exclusive drink in bars and today appears with increasing frequency in letters from hip bars and the high-end cocktails in São Paulo.

In some, it is reserved for sections of the menu dedicated to Brazilian classics, such as the firecracker and caipirinha. In others, it takes on a new look with handcrafted vermouths and more elaborate recipes made by some of the most important bartenders in the capital. The only order, they say, is to keep the cachaça in the recipe.

“Our drinks have evolved and today we have the possibility of reinterpreting rooster tail without forgetting its origin. We can serve it in glasses, in crystal glasses, with special ices, make infusions, create bitters, things that didn’t exist before” , says Mestre Derivan, bartender and creator of the National Competition of Rabo de Galo, which makes its fourth edition on the 13th of this month.

For Márcio Silva, international bar consultant and presenter of the Bar Aberto cocktail reality show, part of the appreciation of the cocktail in the last five years also arises from the desire of bartenders to educate people’s tastes about good cachaça. “The drink was highly praised by the explosion of Negroni throughout the world. Those who started drinking Negroni began to adapt their taste buds to more pungent flavors. And then they start to like rooster tail, it’s an evolution of taste,” he explains.

Mestre Derivan says that the drink has only come so far because it is part of the Brazilian imagination. “Hardly you can find a family where an uncle or a father didn’t drink the cock’s tail in their student days,” he says.

According to him, who a few years ago embarked on the project for the cocktail to be included in the list of the IBA (International Bartenders Association) as an international classic, the cocktail is now more than ready to take on new flights. “The rooster tail is no longer from São Paulo or Brazilian, it belongs to the world. It is in France, the United States, Japan, Austria, Portugal, England. It has already taken care of everything.”

See below where to drink rooster tail in its original recipe or in creative reinterpretations in five bars in the city where it was raised.

Bar Brahma

The bar located on the most famous corner of São Paulo is the only one that serves a reinterpretation of Mestre Derivan. For R$ 34, you can drink the mixture with Umburana cachaça, a vermouth made by the bartender himself, chocolate bitter with coffee and orange peel.
Av. São João, 677, downtown. Instagram @barbrahma

Chaos

At the bar, which also functions as an antique shop and tattoo parlor, you can take shots of the original version of the cocktail and also of a sweeter adaptation, called Rabo de Galinha — created by Ane Moraes, the house bartender, brings cachaça with cinnamon infusion and artisanal ginger syrup. The two versions cost R$13 each.
R. Thirteenth of May, 174, Bladder. Instagram @caosbar.sp

Round

In Pinheiros, the bar serves drinks in its most Brazilian section, alongside classics such as bomberinho and caipirinha. There, the drink, sold for R$ 32, is made with cachaça, red vermouth and bitter.
R. Padre Garcia Velho, 26, Pinheiros. Instagram @girobar_

Go

The bar in the central region is another that bets on classic for the menu. The glass receives a mixture of Arborea cachaça, Cynar —which was incorporated into the original recipe in the 1970s— vermouth and Tahitian lemon juice. It costs BRL 25.
R. Marquês de Itu, 413, Vila Buarque, tel.: (11) 3222-2075. Instagram @kaia.sp

calf’s foot jelly

The country food restaurant in the north zone presents the creative Galo do Zé version (R$ 28.90), which features cachaça aged in oak, artichoke liqueur, triple sec liqueur and dehydrated orange.
Av. Nossa Sra do Loreto, 1100, Vila Medeiros, tel.: (11) 2951-3056 Instagram @mocotorestaurante