Trapiche

I was expecting only to catch up with my good friend Alejo, the coffee farmer whom I befriended 4 years ago on my first visit to Costa Rica with my students, and Rafa, one of our project hosts at the time, his son Reime (studying architecture in San Jose), and Dustin, leaving the students behind in their work.  I have managed to touch base with Alejo every year since, and it is always a pleasure.  In spite of their suggestions to the contrary, I did not recall ever having "agua dulce", and so it was that we agreed to meet at the "Cafeteria Flory", a small soda (local restaurant) for this specialty local drink, located north of Piedades Norte, high up in the coffee/rainforest/sugar cane boundary region, in a heavy, damp cloud based mist, delightfully in the middle of nowhere.

Our visit to Cafe Flory: (l to r) me, Alejo, Rafa and Dustin

What I was first treated to was a small glass of an orange liquid, described to me as containing pineapple and orange juice, and a bit of "contribando" - moonshine!   What a terrific wake-me-up! This was followed by two cups of agua dulce - basically hot sweetwater drink made from sugar cane, one cup "con leche" (with milk) and one without, for me to decide which I preferred (con leche!).  On this cool misty morning, this was an excellent warming treat, and I have no recollection of ever having it, but the "contribando" may have, at this point, clouded my memory!  This accompanied a lively discussion about architecture, construction, and politics,  enabling me an opportunity to work on my Spanish.

Juice laced with "contribando"

Agua dulce, with tostadas and "picadillo", a potato based
lump of goodness .  The packages of jerky - "carne" is a long
running gift to Alejo, who loves it and hoards it!

But what I was not expecting was the "trapiche" - a sugar processing facility that seemed at home in another century. Located next to the soda, I learned that the family of  Brothers Aria (Trapiche Hermanos Aria) process sugar during the season every Wednesday, in time for distribution to the local farmer's markets held on Friday and Saturdays.  We were able to wander this tightly packed ramshackle facility, shrouded in steamy fog, to see the entirety of this operation from raw sugar cane to finished "sobado" logs and "tamuga" blocks of pure sugar.

Trapiche Hermanos Arias

The sugar processing area: cauldrons on left, mold table on right
and sobado mixing at right rear.

The process is quite simple, and certainly time tested.  The sugar cane comes in on a cart, and is fed by one man through a grinder (this one motorized, in the old days, by oxen).  The raw liquid, drinkable and not as sweet as one might expect, then flows to a heated steel cauldron.  The crushed canes, devoid of their liquid goodness, is then stacked to dry. This first cauldron, the largest of three, is boiling the liquid, and is skimmed of its foamy surface.  This foam, called "espuma" is also consumable, and is purported by those around me to be even better than certain virility enhancing compounds in popular use!  It has the consistency of a fluffy mousse-like pudding, and is quite tasty all on its own, but is not sold.

 dulce espuma - the sweet cream of manhood! 

Grinding the cane, note the small
white pipe flowing drinkable cane liquid.

The fire pit, fed with dried cane stalks

The liquid in the first cauldron is ladled into the second, slightly smaller cauldron, similarly skimmed, and is then ladled into the third, smallest cauldron for a final boil, the liquid becoming more concentrated and syrupy in each cauldron.  All three cauldrons are heated from below by an upwardly sloping flue, from a fire pit below the first cauldron, stoked by a man feeding dry sugar cane stalks into the fire with a well worn wooden stick.

The molds . . .

turned out to cool . . .

before having their bath.

 From this third cauldron, concentrating all the sweetness of the cane syrup, the fluid is ladled onto a wooden chute to fill a long wooden trough, constantly paddled to prevent solidifying as the liquid is ladled into wooden molds, which then set, and are eventually turned over, still warm, onto a table to finish cooling before being packaged.  On another table, this hot liquid is used to stir in other ingredients, such as nuts, to form the sobado logs.

The final cauldron, in a thick boil.
Note the large ladle above.

Working the warm sugar into sobado 

What an unexpected surprise, this adventure!  And to be so close to bear witness to this operation, to see the family working together so methodically, was a treat.  In the course of conversation, there was some expressed regret though.  The market for this raw sugar has been steadily shrinking over the years, to the chagrin of the older brothers, who casually asked one of the youngsters (perhaps 10 years old or so) whether he preferred this sugar, or Coca Cola.  His response was predictable and a sad sign of the times.  Coca Cola, to their credit at least in Central America, uses cane sugar, but indeed, Coca Cola has not been around nearly so long as this process, which I suspect is very old.  I only mentioned that perhaps, as all things seem to work in cycles over time, the rediscovery of this pure, raw form of sugar as possessing some new health benefit, will again increase demand.  Virility perhaps?

I can only say how sweet it was!