One of the perks of covering the alcohol beat is the occasional complimentary sample that arrives by mail. It’s usually a medium-sized package containing, at most, a 750-ml. bottle. Often it’s smaller: A sample of the delicious Chopin wheat spirit Single was 375 ml. in size, Woody Creek vodka from Colorado measured a mere 100 ml., and Wild Turkey’s Master’s Keep came in a plastic flask (and good to the last drop). So when the interns showed up to my office carrying two enormous cardboard boxes, I was intrigued—as were the interns.

I’d been expecting a sample of Cachaça 51, the leading brand of the Brazilian spirit distilled from fermented sugar cane, but because of some misunderstanding with the distributor, I ended up with an entire case—12 bottles of the stuff. Suddenly I was like those midlevel gangsters handing out swag to my associates. (Next week it’s furs!) Everyone seemed excited and grateful to receive a bottle, but was anyone quite sure what to do with it?