Cachaça (pronounced kah-SHAH-sah) is a distilled spirit made from sugar cane juice.
It is produced exclusively in Brazil and is often erroneously thought of as a type of rum.

The country's national spirit, "cachaça", and its most famous cocktail, the "caipirinha", are traditionaly enjoyed in Brazil for the longest time, and it is actualy receiving global attention, specially in the U.S., Portugal, U.K., and other markets.
Making a regular appearance in well-stocked bars and liquor stores overseas.

When it was first imported into the U.S., cachaça was listed as a category of rum, out of convenience, it's easy to refer to cachaça as Brazillian rum.
It's more appropriate to consider cachaça a separate category of liquor that's related to rum because they share a sugar-based distillate.

The primary difference is that cachaça is made from freshly-pressed sugar cane juice.

Rum, on the other hand, is most often distilled from sugar by-products like molasses (rhum agricole is made with sugar cane).
It's a technicality, but an important one because cachaça tends to have a raw, vegetal, fruity taste with a more subtle sweetness.