Tangerine-Sugarcane-Pineapple Juice

If you're lucky then ultimately you'll be quite pleased with yourself. You've made juice and it's none of that packaged stuff. The thing with freshly squeezed juice is that you never know what to expect. If your fruits aren't sweet then you may console yourself and take them as vitamin shots. But fruit juices can also get boring. Who wants to drink pineapple juice every day? Or orange? It gets so repetitive sometimes, doesn't it? But a combination of several fruits is always a welcome change as is this tangerine, sugarcane, and pineapple juice.

While thinking of what to do with the tangerines I bought, I thought it'd be great to combine some other fruits as well.  Sugarcanes were not easy to find but I think it's because they are not as common as tomatoes or oranges. This tangerine, pineapple, and sugarcane juice is just as refreshing as the individual fruits from which they are made.

Initially, the plan was to use local tangerines. However, they were unsuitable because they weren't fully in season yet or particularly sweet and so they really turned this juice into a sour mess. They did, however, find their higher calling in this millet salad. I, therefore, opted for non-local tangerines which are almost always very sweet. When the local ones are fully back in season and sweeter in taste, I will use them to make this juice again.

This quick 1-minute youtube video does a good job explaining the difference between tangerines, mandarines, clementines, and satsumas. If you are curious as to why local oranges or tangerines here in Ghana are more likely to be green rather than orange then this is a great explanation. In this post, I will simply be referring to them as tangerines.

If you don't have anything to juice the sugarcane with, then the wheels in your head start to turn. Luckily, a lot of people have the same problem and Google is a gem. Simply put, use a blender.

The first time I made this juice, I made the mistake of blending the sugarcane pieces with water to help in the blending process. Sugarcanes are naturally sweet, however as already mentioned, if your other fruits aren't then you risk getting very diluted or tangy juice.

What you should do is blend all your fruits together. So I chucked my sugar cane pieces (washed, peeled, and cut into smaller bits), tangerines (peeled), and pineapple (peeled) into the blender and blended everything into as much of a smooth paste as I could get.

The better option and I do recommend this, is to squeeze the tangerines separately as the white parts of the tangerines can leave a bitter aftertaste. If you want juice with no bits of sugar cane then additionally pass it through a cheesecloth or muslin cloth. In the absence of either, use a clean kitchen towel(washed and unused).

To pep things up a bit, I added some crushed mint and let the juice chill. The end result is really worth all the stress of peeling the sugarcanes and cutting them into pieces. This juice is the perfect pairing with this snack made from cassava.

If the juice ends up being too sweet for you then you can dilute it with regular water, soda water, or sparkling water. Another option is to make ice lollies out of them.