The Mystery of Sugar, Revealed!
by Debbie Mayer

Every day we consume sugar, but what is the difference between white, brown, and raw/cane sugar?  And where does that sugar come from?

Well, the two main sources of sugar are sugar cane and sugar beets.  The traditional way of making sugar in Costa Rica is by using a trapiche (sugar cane mill) to process the cane into sugar (see steps below).  This procedure creates "tapa dulce", a block of thick raw, cane sugar.  To make white sugar, factories would bleach the sugar crystals and other chemicals would be added to remove impurities.  To make brown sugar, molasses is added back to the white sugar. 

Sugar cane, the main producer of sugar, is grown all over the world in tropical and subtropical climates.  Sugar is not one of Costa Rica's main agricultural exports (coffee & bananas still reign), but it is grown all over the country.  Families in the countryside often grow their own sugar cane.  In fact, every family in the town of Piedras Blancas (the site of our homestays and the hometown of many of our instructors) has its own trapiche to process sugar cane.  Sugar cane, a tall tropical grass, takes a year to mature and has a typical sugar content of 10% total weight.

How do you process sugar cane?  Almost all of our past students can take you through the steps that are traditionally used in Costa Rica to turn sugar cane stalks into sugar. 

Step 1:  Cut down sugar cane, leaving the root.    Once cut, the cane will re-generate and be ready to cut down again in another year. Try to resist simply chewing on cane- we have sugar to make!

Step 2:  Wash cane to get dirt off of stalk.

Step 3: Use wooden club to hit joints of stalk.  This makes it smoother for the cane to be processed by the mill. 

Step 4:  Run the cane through the mill extract juice.  This procedure takes 4 people:  one to feed the cane into the mill, two to turn the crank, and one to get the cane out of the mill.  The cane must go through the mill three times to get all the juice out.  The second time the cane is twisted and the third time it is folded in half.  Repeat this process many, many times to get desired amount of juice.  The leftover cane fiber (bagasse) is a great fuel source as it emits a lot of heat.

Step 5: Pour juice through strainer to remove any large pieces of sugar cane.  Heat juice to evaporate water (some trapiches add bark to help with the cleaning).  Foam and dirt will rise to the surface, remove it by skimming it off the surface (this can be fed to pigs).  Cane juice will be boiling for close to three hours, until it become a thick syrup.

Step 6:  Pour syrup into trough, and then into small molds (tapas).  As soon as the syrup cools (about 10 minutes), the mold can be turned over to reveal cones of sugar. 

The molds of sugar that students make in Piedras Blancas may not look like the raw cane sugar you find at home.  To get the sugar more crystallized, the molds would need to spin in a centrifuge to separate the crystals.  The sugar molds can be used to make a refresco (juice made by mixing sugar, lime, and water with fruit), agua dulce (warm water mixed with sugar), or any other use for sugar!

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