San Agustín Local Customs

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San Agustín is known for the cultivation of sugar cane. There are at least 30 families in the area that still produce raw sugar in their small factories using traditional techniques. Visiting one of such factories was part of the jeep tour. We could see the whole process. First they have to extract sugar from freshly harvested sugar cane; the sweet juice come out and the cane fibre is carried away. After cleaning they place the syrup into a very large pan for boiling. In this stage even more water is boiled off until sugar crystals begin. They are then given a final dry before being stored.

Uses of sugar cane include the production of sugar, molasses, rum (Colombia is among the world's most important producers) and cachaça (national alcoholic beverage of Brazil, also known as aguardente). In Colombia aguardiente is an anise-flavoured liquer derived from sugar cane, popular in the Andean region. Pieces of sugar cane are chewed for their sugary syrup and in some places they are a popular street food, as is guarapo or guarapo de caña (sugar cane juice).