cake of panela

We've been working hard, but Saturday night was the designated night off. We'd spent the day interviewing grocery store owners in the Cali slums. At one of the markets we stocked up on cakes of panela -- a solid round of unrefined sugar that's created from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice. Colombia is the main producer of panela. They make about 1.4 million tons/year. In Colombia, the panela industry is an important source of employment with about 350.000 people working nearly 20,000 panela farms.

We decided to do what Colombians do and made a batch of aguapanela -- one of the most widely drunk beverages in Colombia.

To make it we filled a pitcher with tap water (yes, I decided to drink the water and so far, so good). Once the panela cake dissolves in the water, pour yourself a glass. It tastes like a lightly sweetened ice tea and was surprisingly less sweet than I expected. Notheless, I added lemon to sour it up.

Here's a photo essay, documenting our impatience with the speed that the panela dissolved: