Sugarcane juice

Sugarcane juice is the fresh, pale green to amber liquid pressed straight from peeled stalks of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), drunk as a cooling street beverage across South and Southeast Asia, North Africa and Latin America. Vividly sweet and faintly grassy, it is almost pure liquid sucrose with a froth of green vegetal aroma, and is traditionally squeezed to order on a roller mill and served at once over ice, very often sharpened with a squeeze of lime or a knob of ginger. It is non-alcoholic, caffeine-free and intensely refreshing in hot climates, where it is sold from carts under names such as ganne ka ras, asab, caldo de cana and nuoc mia. The drink is best understood as the unrefined first step of sugar itself — the same juice that, boiled down, becomes jaggery and crystal sugar.