Natural Licors of Casa De Zorzi

 Casa De Zorzi is a family licor producer based in Santa Cruz do Sul, south of Brazil. It was founded by Jairo Dezorzi, a local entrepreneur with Italian roots and a great affection for the Italian culture.

The focus lies on the production of 100% natural licors, without any additives, conservants or stabilizers. Inspiration comes from the ancient recipes of Italian licors:

• Limoncello (Sicilian lemon) 
• Limecello (Persian Lime)
• Mandarinetto (tangerines)
• Arancello (oranges)
• Licor al Caffè (coffee)

The fruits used in the licors are plucked and peeled manually. The coffee beans are organic and come from Espirito Santo in Brazil.

The history of Limoncello

Whether it was in Sorrento, Amalfi or Capri we might never know for sure were Limoncello appeared first. Several regions claim to be the birthplace of the lemon licor. We do know though it's origins date more than 100 years back.

Some say medieval fishermen would drink it to warm up on cold mornings, others say monasteries in the region produced it for the monks. 

How to drink Limoncello? 

Traditionally Limencello is drank ice-cold, after a meal, to digest. 

However is has been used more and more to mix in other drinks such as Gin Tonic, Martini or Caipirinha.

Casa De Zorzi recommends to store it's natural licors in the freezer at -17º C.

Street Dogs & the Chennai Expat Guide

I remember as if it was yesterday. It was already quite late at night and I wanted to pick up my loved one from work. Having discovered the shortcut on a rickshaw ride, I decided to use it again. Passing through with the Kinetic, though with hesitation, I went for it.  Big mistake. At night, the streets of Chennai change and many of them will be dominated by street dogs. A bunch of them chased me out of the hood, with my legs in the air!

This short story and many others are documented in the book Chennai Expat guide, written by my friend and former boss Peter Claridge. Have look on his website chennaiexpatguide.com to buy the book or check out the Kindle version on Amazon.

Going out in Curitiba - Day & Night Drinking

So, whether for some odd reason you tought of stopping by in Curitiba on your Latam backpacking trip or you're just in town for business, I'll cut the chase: few landmarks will impress you here (the MON museum basically). Many bars and clubs are fun and will impress you. That's exactly why off the 20 stops the Tourist double-decker offers, you're only allowed to unboard to see 4. "Don't waste time sigthseeing", the four lonely cupons whisper.

So I wrote a post about going out in Curitiba , largely based on personal experience and therefore exempt of country and rock bars, which are quit popular amongst Brazilians. Below is a map with all the places mentioned and some more.


NIGHT CLUBBING

Electronic music is definitely not the most popular genre in Brazil. In Curitiba however, the scene is pretty evolved and there are some good clubs to be found.


Club Vibe

If you like house and techno this is the place to be. This legendary club in Curitiba has international DJ´s and a great soundsystem that guarantee for a good night out, except when they don't have beer to sell. Regularly open on weekdays, as the same big names move on to D-Edge in São Paulo for the weekend.

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Paradis Club

This is a cosy club with different music styles, depending on the party. The infamous 'Funk You' parties land here and they also program a lot of Jazzy, Funky, Groovy, Disco Dj's. Get on up, Stay on the scene, Get on up, Like a sex machine!

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Danghai Club

Growing in popularity, this place might be snooping away a bit of the Vibe public. Programming national and sometimes international dj's, usually techno, the club has a complimentary breakfast at 7am.

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Studio Club

Also a new kid on the block, be it a block outside the city. The Studio club mostly brings local house and techo dj's in what they call a "sofisticated, exclusive and harmoniuous club", featering an outside area with a pool (nobody uses, ever). You might want to wear sunglasses to fit in.

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NIGHT DRINKING

Cocktail bars and cafés in Curitiba, to enjoy a drink with friends or fuel up before the party.


Le Voleur de Vélo

This fine bar not only serves delicious cocktails but also sells bikes, put all over the walls.  The interior and the drinks breath originality, gaining Vogue's aproval as "one of the hipper spots in Curitiba". The terrace is great for an intimate drink with friends on a hot summer evening. The Gin-Tonics are my favourite here!

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Tiger Cocktails


Before hitting the club, you can get some great drinks at the Tiger Cocktails Bar. The bar is part of the Lagundri restaurant and therefor bestows some of it's exclusive air on it. The "Moscow Mule" and "Nancy Sinatra" are definetely worth a try!

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+55

This bar / restaurant is pretty big, yet on weekends fully packed. Besides pushing Budweiser buckets they have a large food menu, ranging from greacy sausage to fine sushi. Live bands regularly play and they've had their experiments with electronic music, such as the Corona Summer Sunsets. They do their best to attract singles and it's a known hunting ground.

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Street Drinking Vicente Machado

On the Vicente Machado street there's several tiny bars one next to the other. As they don't have much or no seating at all, they end up serving local beers to people in the streets. It's a pretty hip crowd that gathers there on fridays after work or hot Saturday evenings. Wattafuck is right in front the +55 bar and 'Pizza' some 50m down. You can't miss the crowd, blend inn.

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DAY DRINKING

So let's imagine you took the sightseeing bus and you're 4 stops down and back where you started at f**king mid-day. what to do? Get a drink, right?

Maneko's bar

Join the retired resident crowd at Maneko's for some shameless liquor as of  11am. This bar is as old as the street in front and serves a mean "bife parmegiana" (steak with tomato sauce and cheese on top) , making it a great option for lunch. 'Passarinho', the whistling waiter, will jokingly take your order and yell it to the kitchen.

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Bar do Alemão

As the name betrays, this is a German inspired bar, great for day drinking. From 11am onwards you can drink big pints of German lager and eat "Wurst" over here. It's located on the Largo da Ordem, in the historic centre, a neighbourhood best enjoyed during daylight hours anyways.

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Barbaran - Ucrânia bar

This Ukrainian bar sometimes proves hard to find but is worth the while. Besides cold beers they have good finger food (minced meat!) at reasonable prices. Opens around 4pm. Go early cos it's busy.

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Rua São Francisco

This recently revitalised street in the centre is an alternative hipster hangout and features many bars serving local artisan beers, bar food and burgers. The bars are rather small so the street gets packed pretty quickly in the evening. During lunch hour it's more chill and the Negrita bar is a great option. The square "Praça Bolsa do Ciclista" is community project of Curitiba's citizens and boosts recycled art and mini city gardens. A 'Robocop' from the municipal police keeps the place under constant surveillance.

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Party Map

A custom made map with the best places to go out in Curitiba.




Words of Caution

A common question among tourists is whether it is dangerous to go out in Curitiba. In comparison to many other cities in Brazil it is not. If you limit yourself to taking a taxi and going straight to the place you want to go, you'll hardly run into any trouble. If you go out for drinking in the street, just stay with the crowd. If you stroll around however, particularly in the historic city centre after dark, you have to watch out for crack addicts and thugs.

To take a taxi, it is recommended to use a taxi app on your phone, such as 99Taxis or Easy Taxi. As the drivers are personally identifiable, they are more trustworthy. It's not uncommon for malicious taxi drivers to be waiting outside clubs for drunk party goers and do detours or charge more "cos they don't have change".

Make sure you have money. This might sound obvious, but in most places you only pay at the exit at the end of the night. It's easy to spend just checking boxes on a paper card so avoid nasty surprises as you leave. Usually an entrance fee applies, ranging from 20R$ in bars to 80R$ in clubs, so include that as well.


Any tips for going out in Curitiba? Leave it in the comments!

Why Mobile is no longer an option

This is the original english draft of my article in Adnews Brazil: 'Porque você deveria investir em mobile'

Why Mobile is no longer an option

The last 5 years have been the “year of mobile”.  And you might be skeptical towards trends
and guru’s predicting the next big thing, but when data speak, they speak loud and clear. Not
for you to ignore. Not if you own an business and want to be of any meaning in the next
decade.

With a smartphone penetration of up to 39% in 2014 and 40 million “multiscreen consumers”, the mobile reality of Brazil is very real. For the grand majority of these people, the mobile screen is also their first screen. They acces internet daily with it (72%) and 21% does so only through their mobile device. Just Imagine the millions of people that will never arrive at your desktop version. We have seen at the agency, and other data confirm, desktop visits drop this year. You don’t want to bet on a sinking ship.

Sandboarding in Lima

Though Lima boosts some incredible museums and beautiful parks in the Miraflores district, thrill seekers might prefer spending the day sandboarding in the desert hills surrounding the capital.

Typically sandboarding in Peru is practiced in the city of Ica, on the Huacachina Lagoon in particular, but that's 300km south of Lima and is too far for a day trip. Rafo Motta is the first one to offer sandboarding to tourists in Lima. He (or a taxi) picks you up in your hotel and after getting the (snow)board gear right, he drives you in his jeep to the hills behind Chilca, some 60 km out of the city.

Google Adwords For Dummies @ HUB Curitiba

 A little self promotion this time for a course I'm giving at Hub Curitiba about Google Adwords.
It will be a 2 hour interactive session on 22th of August, in Portuguese, for people who want to get started with the tool to promote their business, e-shop or app.

You pay as much as you can or whatever you think it's worth, so you have nothing to lose!

>>> REGISTER HERE FOR GOOGLE ADWORDS FOR DUMMIES

There's a lot of other exiting talks going on during the Festival HUB Escola so take a look on the site!

The Truth is out there, Math Men

There's more Mad Men in us than we think, dear Math Men. Data might be overtaking the marketing space and out of nowhere data scientists, growth hackers and such pop-up, but let's not lose the essence here. Marketing is, and always has been, about people. Though the data might be giving priceless information, it's worthless without context.

I'm not saying this because I believe in brochures and cold calling, I am an analyst too, but meeting the people behind a business, feeling their products and understanding their motivations, often (heavily) influenced my interpretation of their data.

Segments don't exist, you know. We, marketeers, are inventing them to make our life's easier, but the reality is that we cannot capture this uniqueness in a KPI.

Let's life with that and go out there. Let's all be Don Drapers, let's all be Math Men.
You don't even have to choose.