Our finished product for you.
Nothing but pure rich crafted sugar.
Traditionally hand crafted in the Colombian Andes.

Order Our Finest Sugar Direct from Source.

We really hope you enjoy the film below detailing the exact process we undertake in crafting our finest sugar. One that we are sure you will agree to be the finest sugar. Single origin, authentic, and environmentally friendly produced sugar is what we pride ourselves in here at Finca Varsovia.

We are thrilled to be able to offer this product to new customers across the globe. We only send you our freshly produced sugar. No warehouses or stock is kept. We dispatch directly from our mill (trapiche). Orders are gathered up to our next production date. Please contact us to proceed with an order or enquiry. Demand is high and we can only consider personal orders for our finest sugar in 320g amounts. Please contact us using the form below for a timeframe and price. Orders are sent internationally with tracking and payment can be made securely by card.

The process of making sugar from cane here in Colombia and much of the developing world is changing rapidly. Pressures are changing the process and the end quality of the sugar being created.

We here at Finca Varsovia are a family, not-for-profit, traditional sugar cane farm founded and unchanged since the 1960s. We are resisting market pressure and mass consumer demand. Instead, producing something very special that is true to our long heritage of hand crafting the finest, rawest and ultimately healthiest sugar with absolutely nothing but integrity added, no flavours, no colours, no preservatives. In growing our cane we use no chemicals or stressful agricultural practices. It is just natural, 1500m high, Andean sun kissed, spring watered and hand selected cane that makes the cut.

Our sugar is a ‘non-centrifugal’ that is at very first stage process. All we do is dehydrate the 100% sugarcane juice. Retaining the fibre and vitamins of our sugarcane plant in its molasses. Our crafted sugar crystallises without centrifuging, chemicals or machinery. It is the most authentic process that has been personally crafted by nature and with quality in our hands and heart.

Below are a series of photographs from our traditional sugar crafting process. In South America, the sugar goes by Rapadura in Brazil, Panela in Colombia, Chancaca in Peru and Bolivia, Piloncillo in Ecuador, Mexico and Chile. In India and Southeast Asia, they call it Jaggery and Gurh. Nepal calls it Veli, Malaysia calls it Gula Merah, while Japan calls it Kokuto (black sugar).

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What is Panela?

Panela is recognized by a rich, full bodied taste, somewhat similar to molasses, but a bit milder. The sugar crystals in panela melt on your tongue, a lot like maple sugar candy. You can melt panela with a bit of water to make a syrup, or grate it and use it like brown sugar. It has always been a delicious sweetener for coffee and tea. Cafe Campesino (literally translates to Peasant’s/Farmer’s Coffee) begins as an aguapanela (“Panela water”- water with chunks of panela dissolved in) that is later mixed with roasted, ground coffee that is sifted and served.

Flavour aside, Panela pervades throughout all of Colombian society. It used in the above mentioned ‘Café Camepsino’, the morning beverage our farmers and other farmers that roam the Andes mountainside, but it is also the mandatory sweetener for caffeinated nightcaps throughout the bustling cities, even in the high-end restaurants that cater to the more affluent.

In areas of Colombia with extreme poverty, a significant portion of daily caloric intake comes from the consumption of Panela, due to its availability and its supplemental benefits. From the 1980’s through to today, many cyclists in Colombia aguapanela is the companion on their tours up and down the mountains.

When the team competed in the Tour de France in 1980 they were actually questioned for steroids use of the unfamiliar sugar Panela. They used it as candy during the race and drank aguapanela in their sports bottles. Cyclist Patricinio Jimenez, a rider of the famed 80’s Colombian team, said that there was no possible way he could conceive cycling without panela.

Their preference may be due to Panela’s structure as a more complex form of carbohydrate than plain sugar. The simpler the carbohydrate, the more quickly the energy released. Panela is digested and absorbed slower releasing its energy gradually. This means that the body receives energy for a longer period without the “sugar rush” and blood sugar spikes that are the associated of refined sugars.

But to best understand what sets panela apart from refined sugars you must understand the level of processing it goes through. The first step in processing sugar is to press the juice out of the sugarcane and gently heat it in large metal vats until it thickens down into a syrup. We use a series of traditional vats over our fire instead of mechanical sugar equipment made of steel, to avoid flavour residue from nickel with prolonged heated use.

While our Panela is being heated it is also cleansed using the pulp from the bark of the balsa tree (no chemicals). Interestingly, Balsa eliminates the impurities because of the viscous mucilage, the gooey liquid found inside the bark, wraps around the dirt and other contaminants and lifts it to the surface. It is then possible for the impurities to be easily sifted from the rest of the panela. A good indicator of the quality of the panela is the colour; lighter colours are the result of fewer impurities and that the panela is not burned.

Our Powdered Panela

Our boiled and thicken molasses is then beaten by a large wooden paddle and allowed to periodically rise before repeating the process. We continue this process of whipping the Panela until the syrup cools and becomes powder with constant movement.

What is the difference?

Industrial manufacturers of sugar use unpleasant chemicals like sulphur dioxide, phosphoric acid, bleaching agents & viscosity reducers. all minerals are removed because they are considered as impurities. Panela, by contrast, retains minerals like Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphate, and Iron.

Please do contact us with any queries or to make a purchase through our direct contact form above.