51

51 comes from Pirassununga, in the interior of São Paulo state. In 1959, Guilherme Müller Filho, a Brazilian of German descent, founded Müller, Franco & Cia. there, with Cachaça 51 as its first product. The company changed names a few times — Müller Franco Ltda. in the late 1960s and Caninha 51 Indústria e Comércio de Bebidas in 1983 — before settling on Companhia Müller de Bebidas in the early 2000s. In 1974, to keep up with demand, it imported the most modern bottling line of its day.

In the late 1970s came the concept "51 – Uma Boa Ideia" ("a good idea"), which became the slogan and made advertising history as the first professional, integrated campaign for a cachaça. In the 1980s the company bought the Taboão estate in Pirassununga, where it still operates; the 1990s brought a plant in Cabo de Santo Agostinho (Pernambuco) and the first exports, starting with Japan. Today 51 is sold in more than 50 countries, and in 2023 it was voted the Top of Mind cachaça for the third year in a row. The origin of the number in the name is surrounded by competing stories, and the company has no official explanation; one, attributed to a son of the founder, links 51 to Palmeiras' 1951 world title.