Sugarcane Extract (papelon / Panela)

[vulture]

Hi everyone

Started peating about 2 weeks ago, I also started drinking coffee and re-introducing sugar (white, table) after years, usually just a tablespoon with coffee, gelatin, cacao and coconut oil taken with foods.

I'm reading here that there's nothing bad in taking some white table sugar as long as it is with food, some gelatin, etc...but I was wondering what about something we call here "papelón" o "panela", it is made of sugarcane, they extract the liquid out of it, then boil it for hours until it becomes a really thick brown and sweet liquid, like a thick honey, then they let it cool down and it becomes hard. When you want to use it in a coffee or drink, you let it dissolve in water for some minutes (or seconds if water is boiling)

As far as I know, it is a few steps away from sugar, there's not whitening process on it, it's taste is great. Here it's pretty popular and people make something like a lemonade but it tastes a lot better.

Is it a good idea to use this on a daily base? I'm not a friend of honey, I'm not into it's taste

 

[squanch]

I think it really depends on how it's made.
Often they cook it in very large rusty pans somewhere outside in the middle of nowhere. I think most of it isn't produced in nice and clean stainless steel tanks in a factory. You would have a lot of iron and other impurities in the finished food.

Here is what Ray said about unrefined sugar at some point:

No, although there are some nutrient minerals in it, the impurities can be slightly toxic and allergenic [BROWN SUGAR].

Apparently it was in an old Danny Roddy interview, can't find the original source anymore.

You said you don't like the taste of honey. There are literally hundreds of different types of honey, all taste different. Something like acacia honey for example would have a very mild taste, honeydew honeys (forest honey) would have a stronger and malty flavor etc.

 

[vulture]

I think it really depends on how it's made.
Often they cook it in very large rusty pans somewhere outside in the middle of nowhere. I think most of it isn't produced in nice and clean stainless steel tanks in a factory. You would have a lot of iron and other impurities in the finished food.

Here is what Ray said about unrefined sugar at some point:

Apparently it was in an old Danny Roddy interview, can't find the original source anymore.

You said you don't like the taste of honey. There are literally hundreds of different types of honey, all taste different. Something like acacia honey for example would have a very mild taste, honeydew honeys (forest honey) would have a stronger and malty flavor etc.

I think you are right, panela or papelón usually are made in big old rusty pans with flies and all kind of craps all over the place haha there must even be lots of sweat in those things. I'll keep on with plain table sugar...anyway, I'm just using about 4 or 5 tablespoons a day

Didn't know there were different tastes in honey. I'll have to check it out, but sadly it is kinda expensive here and the non expensive honey sometimes is hard to tell if they are really pure and not a crappy fake

 

[Xisca]

Hola chamito!
I think caramel is ...burned stuff. Though panela tastes real good!
I prefer to have the integral sugar that is nearly white but not totally.
I also have lots of fruits, and in that case that is better than sugar even according to Peat.
I have just had fish, papaya and mango...

 

[vulture]

¿Chamito? je ¿rondando 3 décadas? Veo que eres de españa, pero acá chamito es para lo que creo que allá son crios jeje
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Why integral (brown sugar?) sugar and not plain sugar?
I added sugar to my coffee because I read something called "coffee done right" where Peat recommended to add fat (cream), gelatin and sugar to coffee, as well as drinking it along with food, not on empty stomach. So far things feel nice doing it, even at 6 PM. I'm having small trouble sleeping but those aren't new and were there before coffee intake

Here in Venezuela there's a ton of fruit to choose, and kinda cheap, I usually eat oranges, sometimes watermelon.
Nice to see an spanish speaking person here, ha, kinda hard to