Chachimbiro, Ecuador –
The Burro looked bored.
Then again, I suppose I would be bored too, spending most of my days going round and round.
Always the same small circle, tied to the same stick.
Not even much of a view. Sugar cane fields, a two-lane road, and the roadside café (if that’s what you would call it).
Then along comes a bus full of foreigners who circle around and take pictures of you doing your job.
It’s like being a performer on stage.
Or maybe a celebrity being hounded by paparazzi.
Then again, you do get to eat crushed sugar cane remnants from time to time.
I suppose it’s a reasonably good life.
For a Burro…
We had just spent the past few hours at the thermal pools at Chachimbiro, where there was a series of pools, water from each going to the next as it cooled. Each pool had the water temperature posted, so you could choose how hot you wanted to be as the volcanically-heated water slowly cooled.
As we were leaving, starting our way back to Cotacachi, our guide and interpreter had the driver stop our bus at a roadside café, in the middle of some sugar cane fields.
We were going to be treated to the café’s specialty, fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice.
There, in the middle of everything, was a burro-driven press. A stick of sugar cane would be fed in one side, and the flattened remnants would come out the other. In between, a stream of juice would pour out into a pitcher placed to catch it.
So, the Burro was spurred into action, with a gaggle of photographers surrounding it, shutters clicking away.
As the pile of flattened cane husks grew larger, the Burro would stop and grab a husk or two to eat.
Once enough cane juice had been produced, it was portioned out into a set of cups. The cups were passed around, and everyone who wanted, got the opportunity to sample fresh, slightly filtered (through a strainer, to remove any large chunks), unprocessed sugar cane juice.
Was it sweet? Yes, but not noticeably more than what I would expect from many other fresh fruits and melons. Beyond the sweetness, it had a rich flavor that you don’t get from processed sugar.
I remember once, as a kid, I had toured a sugar factory, somewhere in Columbia. As we were shown each step in the refining process, our guide would reach into each vat and pull out a handful of the product, allowing us to see (and taste) the slow conversion from a dark, moist, and full of flavor substance to the white, sweet, and basically flavorless end product that comes out the other end.
I can understand why the primary demand is for the refined product that will sweeten foods without adding a new flavor to the mix. When you need to counteract a bitter taste, you don’t necessarily want to change the overall flavor of whatever it is that you are preparing.
Plus, I know that you can buy various shades of brown sugar, from dark to light, which adds a molasses-y flavor to whatever you put it in.
Then again, you can also buy “raw” sugar, which is still processed and refined, just not as much.
But none of these match the flavor of fresh, unprocessed sugar cane juice.
If you’ve ever gotten the opportunity to chew on the end of a stick of sugar cane, then you’ve had a chance to sample the flavor. This is something that my family would get to do every summer when a family friend who grew his own would harvest his crop. And again years later, as an adult, when a street vendor in Negril, Jamaica offered Dore and I the same opportunity.
Just not as concentrated as when pressed.
And without the splinters that are the primary memory my sister has of sucking on sugar cane sticks as a child.
Personally, I don’t remember getting any splinters. But that’s the beauty of memories; we can each retain what we want to be the focus. And, as a result, each of us will remember the same event differently from everyone else.
So while my sister chose to focus on the painful and irritating aspects, I decided to focus on the flavorful part of the sweetly sublime experience. C’est la vie…
For more photos of pressing fresh sugar cane juice, click here.
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