It’s that time of the year. In a few days we are heading for St Martin.
One of my favorite drinks in the French Caribbean is Ti Punch, a drink made with Rhum agricole (rum made directly from sugar cane juice instead of molasses), sugar syrup, and muddled limes.
It has a real kick, although my gf would point out that the beach-bars where I order it are owned by friends who are very 420 friendly, and will light one up to share over a Ti’ Punch.
Anyone else enjoy a Ti’ Punch? I’ve learned to drink them hardcore (no ice) the way the locals like them.
Even better is that one place in Port Louis where they can sell fresh sugar cane juice legally ( the rest goes to the sugar industry ). Mixed with rum, beer, or fruit juice , it tastes great, and as the signs proclaim, good for diabetes !
These are apparently complex sugars which need to be broken down before absorption and have a low glycemic index. Google “sugar cane juice diabetes” to get some articles .
That doesn’t pass the smell test; cane juice isn’t chemically changed during processing to white sugar; it’s merely physically refined- boiled down, crystallized, run through charcoal to decolorize it, etc…
I suppose that tiny fraction that becomes molasses might have some of those properties, but so would raw sugar, or demerara, or even brown sugar, and none of those are good for diabetics.
Unfortunately wiki is not very clear here although they mention how the molasses and filtercake portions have to be separated before the remaining can be separated into refined sugar andvthe rest. And the articles citing low glycemic index also warn you that one should be careful with type 2 diabetes.
Possibly an area for future research where I’d be happy to participate.