Garapa

"Guarapo" redirects here. For the palm-tree sap also known as guarapo, see Miel de palma

Getting the sugar cane juice with a machine.

Or, with a hand press.

Garapa (var. Guarapa) or Caldo de cana is the Brazilian Portuguese term for the juice of raw sugar cane. Sugar cane juice is consumed as a beverage worldwide, and especially in regions where sugarcane is commercially grown such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America. Sugar cane juice is also known as "guarapo", "guarapo de caña", or "jugo de guarapo" in various dialects of Spanish, "ganne ka ras" or "roh" on the Indian subcontinent, "aseer asab" in Egypt, "air tebu" in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and "nước mía" in Vietnam. The drink is obtained by crushing peeled sugar cane in a small hand- or electric mill. It is then is often served cold with other ingredients added to the fresh juice, such as a squeeze of lemon or lime (in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, India), pineapple (Brazil), passionfruit, ginger (India, Zanzibar) or ice. In India it can also be served with black salt or mint.

Sugar cane juice is especially popular among the Cuban expatriate community in Miami, where it is found in abundance at many locations in Little Havana. It is the national drink of Pakistan, where it is called "roh" and sold fresh by roadside vendors only. It is also one of the most widely consumed drink in India, especially in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pardesh. In Egypt, sugar cane juice is an incredibly popular drink served by almost all fruit juice vendors, who can be found abundantly in most cities. In both Indonesia and Malaysia, sugar cane juice is sold nationwide especially among street vendors. It is also bottled for local distribution in some regions and sold at food courts daily. In Singapore it is sold in food courts only.

Due to its high sugar content it is rich in calories. Garapa juice is the primary source of sugar cane derivatives such as raw sugar (obtained by evaporation and refining), cachaça or "caninha" and ethanol.

Etymology

The origin of the word is unclear. There are two hypotheses:

1. African origin, it means "fermented drink" in West Africa, and was brought into Brazil and the rest of Latin America by slaves from Cabo Verde islands, then to the Madeira islands.
2. Tupi origin, from guarab, meaning a fermented drink laced with honey

In Brazilian Portuguese, garapa is also used figuratively as meaning a good thing, easy to get. Garapa doida (crazy garapa) is also the name given to cachaça in the Amazon region.

In Paraguay, guaripola or simply guari is reserved for the alcoholic beverage, and mosto for the fresh, non-fermented sugar cane juice. As a further differentiation, retailers use to call mosto helado (ice-cold mosto) to the non-industrial, ready-to-drink, road-side or bar variety.

Health risk in rural areas

When prepared in rural areas, raw sugar cane juice can be a health risk to drinkers, mostly because of the unhygienic conditions under which it is prepared in these areas. Since it is very sugary, it is an ideal culture medium to all kinds of microorganisms, so it should not be stored outside a refrigerator. In fact, it is almost always consumed as a freshly prepared drink. Pasteurization is required if the juice is to be bottled and sold as such, and a date of validity should be stamped on the container.

Garapa has been recently involved in a widely publicized episode in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, when at least 49 tourists were infected with Chagas disease by drinking garapa most likely produced at roadside stalls.^{[citation needed]} The sugar cane used for it most probably was contaminated with feces of the insect vector, a Reduviid.