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Sugarcane juice or crystals, for cachaca


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What's difference between sugarcane juice and raw sugar crystals? Want to do cachaca style and looking for proper base. The crystals are easier to find but will they be correct?

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Sugarcane juice is just what it sounds like. It is unrefined juice pressed from sugarcane. It spoils very quickly, so distilleries that use it generally have sugarcane growing nearby. Once crushed, cane juice spontaneously ferments almost immediately. If you are in the midwest, it will probably be difficult to make a cachaca or agricole style rum unless you order refrigerated container loads of sugar cane from Texas or Louisiana and crush it at your distillery. The next closest thing to juice is cane syrup. It is much more stable and can be stored longer. But, it is very hard to find a bulk cane syrup supplier. Next, go for evaporated cane juice (ECJ). This is a crystalized sugar that is not completely refined yet. You might still get some trace elements of the vegetal notes you are looking for in the rum.

I live in the tropics, so I grow my own sugar cane near my distillery. Even with a sugar industry here I found it hard to source any cane juice or even syrup. Best of luck!

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Turbinado sugar and ECJ are generally interchangeable, although there are non-food grade ECJ products that would probably work better and be cheaper for distillation. I think there are lots of people making rum with Turbinado, but I am not one of them. I am sure someone on this forum has done it. Not sure you can really make a cachaca style rum without cane juice, but it is worth trying. There are great rums made with molasses, syrup, refined sugar, pure juice, and a combination of any and all. Try different stuff and see what you get.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Traditional, true Brazilian Cachaça is made from ONLY sugar cane juice. **However**, I know of several top brands that are made of either 1st run molasses or blackstrap. Cane juice will naturally start to ferment after 2-3 hours, it does not transport well, and spoils easily. An IWSC Gold medal winner I know is using raw sugar.

You need to consider your overall process, as a pot still will struggle to strip the heavy flavors from a molasses wash, whereas a column would.

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  • 2 years later...

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