Panela
Sweetener
Top 10 pairings
Panela is the traditional unrefined cane sugar of Colombia and the wider Andes, sold as solid blocks, discs or bricks of boiled-down sugarcane juice. A member of the same non-centrifugal cane sugar family as Mexican piloncillo and Brazilian rapadura, it keeps the molasses that refining strips away, giving it a golden-amber to deep-brown colour and a rounded caramel, molasses and honey sweetness. It is the sweetener behind agua de panela — Colombia's everyday hot-and-cold drink — and the backbone of much regional cooking and baking.
Picking a good onedrag
Rock-hard, sealed, molasses-darkWeeping, sour, fuzzy
Broken into, kept dryEveryday bestChopped into a tight jar, out of the steam. The working block: cafe con panela, hot chocolate, melados, glazes, candies, baking and dark stews.
Colour and gradeDarker or paler than the block you bought last time, or mottled where it sat in the mould
Try to break a cornerHard, but the corners crumble and a blade bites - it grates and chops without a fight
Smell the broken faceSweet and caramel still, but quieter - the honey and the smoke have faded back
Read the labelPiloncillo, papelon, rapadura, chancaca, jaggery: the same whole-cane sugar, local name