Sugar rush

Last week I went to the trapiche and sampled the various dulce treats with my future host family. You might remember that I took the trainees Ofira and Julie there during Immersion Days 2014. The sugar cane is finally ripe for juicing so I grabbed my camera and learned about the process. 

The castrated bulls are hooked up the trapiche. The teens feed the trapiche caña and keep the bulls moving. It takes about an hour to fill the stone basin. *It is very important that they use castrated bulls because they must walk calmly in circles for hours on end.*

Don Cando gets some fresh sugar water for me. 

Neydi drinks some murky brown sweet water. 

Me too. Not too bad!

It was hard to get a good pic of the sugar water boiling down, but there are 3 large vats of bubbling brown liquid. It takes about 1.5 hours to reduce over the intense inferno beneath.

After boiling, Don Chepi pours the reduced brown sugar syrup into wooden wolds. They solidify in about 20 minutes. 

Dump them out and start wrapping. 

The finished product. Each bundle costs $1 at the market. 

The dulce is brown and clumpy, and goes best in foods like arroz con leche. It's 100% natural. I loved seeing the whole process. They were cutting the cane in the field right next to the trapiche, they juiced and boiled and molded and packed all together. I love special batch stuff! And this takes a certain degree of specialized knowledge. Don Cando is a dulce master. 

I don't have any pictures of the kids that came swarming with their paintbrush like cane sticks. They used the brushes to scoop some reduced cańa from the boiling vats. It's good, but all the sugar made me sick. I have no idea how they kept scooping sugar into their mouths. It's a special occasion to make dulces, but damn kids! You're gonna lose your remaining teeth! The kids were also sent out to the field to bring in more cane. Everyone helps at the trapiche.