I had the pleasure of attending this year’s West Indian Parade in Brooklyn this past Labor Day. While scoping out the island fare I came across a man laboriously juicing sugar cane stalks. I inquired about this supposed refreshing chilled juice and was given a bit of a sample. One swig later and I was left with a not so pleasant taste in my mouth. It wasn’t sweet as I had expected and as for refreshing, I think I’ll stick with lemonade on a hot day.

I got to thinking, all that work has got to amount to something worthy of a drinker’s palate and then it hit me — sugar cane juice cocktails. Alone this drink may be less than desirable but use it as a base or even garnish to a refreshing cocktail and they may just have something here.  Chewingcane.com, a north Florida based company that sells ornamental sugar cane plants for the home, offers this list of sugar cane cocktail recipes. more…