In Singapore, Sugarcane (Saccharum Officinarum) are freshly harvested daily, cut into stalks of length (17-18 inches), semi peeled, and packed in cartons before exporting out from Malaysia. These sugarcanes are then extracted by sugarcane machine into juice servings. As a result, they need to be in tip top condition before juicing.

When it comes to selection; freshness, ripeness and sizing are the key elements. A well balance of these elements will give you an ideal colour, volume and density of the juice.

Selecting the key elements

• Take note of the skin and colour of the stalk. Fresh sugarcane should give a moist and radiant tone on the skin.
• A ripe sugarcane should be light to golden yellow in appearance.
• Ripe sugarcane should feel hard, and gives a “knocking” sound when you tapped it.
• If the sugarcane is green but hard, it may be ripe as well. This is due to lack of sunlight exposure.
• Look into the segment of the stems. The numbers of nodes and internode distance in between reflect the maturity of the sugarcane. A ripe sugarcane should have more nodes and less internode distance in between. The numbers of nodes determine the sweetness of the sugarcane. However, excessive nodes will contain too much sugar and this will increase the density of the drink, which may result a darker colour in appearance as the sugar molecules tend to sink in the drink.
• Smaller size will usually taste sweeter and more flavourful.

There are also other factors that may affect the outcome of these elements. For instance, harvesting in a rainy weather may also affect the taste as the sugarcane tend to absorb water. It may produce more juice but become less sweet and concentrated after the extraction of juice.

Although ripe and smaller size sugarcane is sweeter, it also contains lesser juice, which require more stalks to make a serving cup. You should always take these into consideration as these tiny details could result different taste, appearance, and volume which will ultimately affect your profitability of your product! Contact us to find out more!

Note* The above info is based on the sugarcane species from Malaysia.