The Revolutionary Crop
Sugar cane is without a doubt the crop that helped most to modify the Latin American landscape, changing forests and savannahs for oceans of sugar cane fields.
This plant arrived in America (first to the Caribbean islands), brought by Christopher Columbus from the Canary Islands and by the Portuguese to Brazil around 1525.
Although it is said to be originally from New Guinea, it found in American soil a fertile and ideal place to start the so-called "Sugar Revolution."
We can see then that by the 17th century, food exchanges between the new and old continents brought to Europe drinks such as coffee and chocolate, which, together with the growing popularity of tea (from Asia), increased the demand for refined sugar to be able to sweeten these decidedly bitter drinks that were increasingly popular in Europe.
The history of sugar cane in Panama really begins in 1560, when a Panamanian colonist named Francisco Gutiérrez requested to take charge of the maintenance of the Camino de Cruces, provided that he was granted a monopoly on sugar production in the territory.
By 1563, the local market had sufficient production of sugar cane honey.
Beyond the obvious use of sugar cane for refined sugar, in Panama its juice, guarapo, is the basis for making sugar cane honey and raspadura, both of which are still used throughout the national territory as alternative sweeteners, or as a base ingredient for many authentic Panamanian products, such as: lemon or orange chichas with Raspadura or honey, Golloría, Cocadas, Plátanos en Tentación, etc. Guarapo is also the main ingredient in Seco, our national liquor.
Today, Coclé is characterized by its high production of Raspadura and in this province it is widely used to make sweets and as a sweetener in general.
In the central provinces it is more common to find Sugarcane Honey and it is also used as a general sweetener to replace refined sugar.
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