"Cajuina" is a very popular drink in the Brazilian northeastern region and is produced by clarifying cashew apple juice. To preserve "cajuina" from chancing, the clarified cashew apple juice is submitted to thermal treatment where a desired final color should be obtained. To optimize color formation while maintaining high vitamin C and low 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) concentrations the thermal treatment of "cajuina" needs to be studied and the non enzymatic mechanism should be better understood and controlled. In this work the effect of thermal treatment on "cajuina" (clarified cashew apple juice) was studied at temperatures from 88°C to 121°C. Changes in color were measured and the variation in vitamin C, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and sugar content were used to evaluate non enzymatic browning. The kinetic models were used to optimize the thermal treatment to produce "cajuina" with an absorbance at 420 nm of 0.023.