The market hall of Santa Cruz de La Palma is cozy and clear. Many small shops line up around a square courtyard. It’s the usual offer of Mediterranean markets: fruits and vegetables, fish, meat, poultry, spices, flowers and a number of small bars for coffee or a quick glass of wine. But there is a special feature here in St. Cruz: freshly squeezed sugarcane juice – on request also with “shot” – that tastes like more.

There they are, the sugarcane straws: the pieces are probably half a meter long, dull in fresh green, yellow and purple-brown. Sugarcane can grow up to 7 meters high. Accordingly, the pieces in the market are as thick as a finger or even as an arm. Nice to look at, contrary to our local sugar beet which is rather clumsy and inelegant.

In the inner courtyard of the market hall, a hand-written board describes the offer: pure sugar cane juice, sugar cane juice with passion fruit, lemon or orange juice and mojito – all freshly pressed, of course. The stalks are given several times by a press. It used to be done in old olive presses. Today it takes over the modern, appetizing stainless steel variant.