Grogue and Pontche
Grogue - the national drink of Caboverdes
What exactly is Grogue?
Grogue is made from sugar cane and sugar cane is grown on fertile soil, for example on the islands of Santiago and St. Antao.
The Ribeira do Paul on St. Antao is a wildly rugged valley between bizarrely folded mountain slopes and has always been the center of sugar cane liquor production, which is called Grogue in Cape Verde.
I claim that the highest quality and best tasting grogue comes from St. Antao!
The Ribeira do Paul on St. Antao is a wildly rugged valley between bizarrely folded mountain slopes and has always been the center of sugar cane liquor production, which is called Grogue in Cape Verde.
I claim that the highest quality and best tasting grogue comes from St. Antao!
grogue production
The harvest takes place between April and the end of June. The dry leaves of the sugar cane are removed first (desfoliar cana) to avoid crushing the new shoots in the heat of the moment.
Then the cutting begins. The sugar canes are chopped with a "Mandjat", a tool that looks like a hammer but has a blade on one side, and then the division of labor begins: one person cuts the sugar cane, the next removes the leaves, the third removes the tips with a sharp machete, where there are still green leaves. The sugar cane stalks are then tied together into bundles weighing around 20 kg and carried on the women's heads to the "curral" to be squeezed.
Often hidden behind high walls, as if it were still forbidden, is the trapiche, the sugar cane press. In the past, it was powered by mules or oxen, but today it is mostly powered by noisy petrol engines. The machine is fed with an endless chain of sugar cane stalks for hours. The cloudy, green-brown juice is pressed from the sugar cane between several rotating steel rollers and then placed in tanks holding several thousand liters to ferment. The pressed residue is dried and then burned under the distillation furnace.
Then the cutting begins. The sugar canes are chopped with a "Mandjat", a tool that looks like a hammer but has a blade on one side, and then the division of labor begins: one person cuts the sugar cane, the next removes the leaves, the third removes the tips with a sharp machete, where there are still green leaves. The sugar cane stalks are then tied together into bundles weighing around 20 kg and carried on the women's heads to the "curral" to be squeezed.
Often hidden behind high walls, as if it were still forbidden, is the trapiche, the sugar cane press. In the past, it was powered by mules or oxen, but today it is mostly powered by noisy petrol engines. The machine is fed with an endless chain of sugar cane stalks for hours. The cloudy, green-brown juice is pressed from the sugar cane between several rotating steel rollers and then placed in tanks holding several thousand liters to ferment. The pressed residue is dried and then burned under the distillation furnace.
The fermented sugar cane juice is poured into copper kettles and brought to the boil, creating a characteristic drink.
At some point the distillate will start to flow drop by drop. Now it's a matter of waiting for the right moment when the edible grogue comes out instead of methyl alcohol. Every distiller has a feeling for the right moment, but the schnapps tastes different in every pub. Grogue is a throat cleanser, especially when you drink it while it's still warm, straight from the still.
For those who aren't quite so strong, there is also the toned-down version, Pontche. This is grogue, stretched with lemons and honey. You can drink a few glasses of it without going blind.
At some point the distillate will start to flow drop by drop. Now it's a matter of waiting for the right moment when the edible grogue comes out instead of methyl alcohol. Every distiller has a feeling for the right moment, but the schnapps tastes different in every pub. Grogue is a throat cleanser, especially when you drink it while it's still warm, straight from the still.
For those who aren't quite so strong, there is also the toned-down version, Pontche. This is grogue, stretched with lemons and honey. You can drink a few glasses of it without going blind.