Aired (February 22, 2025): Samahan si Kara David sa kanyang pagbisita sa tinaguriang ‘Sugar Bowl of the Philippines' -- ang Negros Occidental! Susubukan din niya ang proseso ng paggawa ng asukal na mula sa tubo. Panoorin ang video!
Hosted by Kara David, ‘Pinas Sarap’ takes its viewers on a weekly gastronomical adventure that gives them a deeper appreciation for Filipino food.
Watch ‘Pinas Sarap' every Saturday, 8:15 PM on GTV. Subscribe to youtube.com/gmapublicaffairs for our full episodes. #PinasSarap
Hosted by Kara David, ‘Pinas Sarap’ takes its viewers on a weekly gastronomical adventure that gives them a deeper appreciation for Filipino food.
Watch ‘Pinas Sarap' every Saturday, 8:15 PM on GTV. Subscribe to youtube.com/gmapublicaffairs for our full episodes. #PinasSarap
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00:00Sugar is one of the must-haves of Filipinos in the kitchen.
00:05But before we taste its sweetness, it's not a joke to go through the process.
00:11Negros is considered a sugar bowl of the Philippines.
00:1465% of the sugar in the Philippines comes from here.
00:20Almost 80% of the agricultural land in Negros is irrigated by the land.
00:26But how does the sugar come from the land?
00:30In the past, the sugar industry was the main industry here in Negros.
00:36Now, the sugar industry is declining.
00:39But until now, there are still tapasero and tapasero.
00:44This is their main source of income.
00:46Like this man, Kuya Walter.
00:48Hi, Kuya Walter. Good morning to you.
00:50Good morning, ma'am.
00:51Are you tapasero or sakada?
00:53Tapasero, ma'am.
00:54Tapasero. What's the difference between tapasero and sakada?
00:57Here in Negros, they call it bali.
01:02That's what they call it.
01:04Sakada.
01:05Sakada.
01:06So, usually, tapasero comes from Negros.
01:10Sakada comes from Aklan, and other places.
01:15And that's what goes to other places.
01:18I thought it was from Aklan, but it goes to Pampangue.
01:21Because there are other places there.
01:23From Tarlac.
01:24So, what are we going to do?
01:26What are you removing?
01:28This, this.
01:29From the tree, ma'am.
01:30From the tree?
01:31You're going to remove it from the tree?
01:32Yes, like this.
01:33Then?
01:34Then?
01:35You clean the tree.
01:36Yes.
01:37What we're really going to get is the trunk.
01:41Yes, the trunk.
01:42This is the trunk, the hard one.
01:43Yes, the hard one.
01:44Isn't that also the trunk?
01:46That's different.
01:48That's not included in that.
01:50That's not included?
01:51Yes, because one by one, we get what we plant again.
01:56They say that every October is the best time to plant the trunks,
01:59and every May is its harvest time.
02:05Wow, this is so long.
02:08Why do you plant so many trunks?
02:12Now, we plant 10 trunks.
02:15Sometimes, we get 16-15 tons of trunks.
02:2315 tons?
02:24Yes.
02:25You're going to carry that?
02:26No, that's for the truck.
02:28Oh, okay, okay.
02:29Now, we're just loading it.
02:31Others are loading it.
02:33Oh, others are loading it?
02:34Yes.
02:35I think it's harder to load it.
02:37Yes, ma'am.
02:41Okay.
02:49How long does it take for this to grow?
02:52Around 12 months, ma'am.
02:5712 months.
02:5812 months?
02:59That's one year.
03:01From 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
03:04Walter and other trucks are constantly loading and unloading the trunks.
03:11Day after day, the work continues.
03:19Loading here, loading there.
03:21There's no end to the load of the trunks.
03:25Loading the trunks is one of the hardest jobs.
03:29It's ironic because it's supposed to be the sweetest thing in the world,
03:36but they say that here in Tubuhan, the work is not sweet.
03:45After we passed the trunks, I tried to help with loading it in the truck.
03:54This is so heavy.
03:56It's heavy.
03:57It's really heavy.
03:58No.
03:59It's heavier.
04:09It's heavy, right?
04:12All day?
04:13Yes.
04:14You're doing 12 tons?
04:15Yes.
04:16The trunks will be brought to Sugar Mill, or as they call it here, Central.
04:23But despite modernization, they still maintain the traditional way of making sugar.
04:30This is called a muscovado mill.
04:33This is one of the first muscovado mills here in the Philippines,
04:37specifically in Negros Island.
04:39You know, this was used back in the 1800s by our ancestors.
04:43If you look at the machine, it says 1873.
04:49As you can see, the sugarcane juice is very hard.
04:53The juice of the sugarcane is inside the trunks.
04:57So what they do is they put it inside this rotating turbine,
05:03and this is what will squeeze the juice out of the trunks.
05:09This is where the sugarcane juice will come out.
05:12There.
05:13It's so sweet.
05:15But the question is, how does this whole machine work?
05:22Back then, our ancestors didn't have electricity.
05:25Their electricity?
05:26There it is.
05:29That turbine rotates the whole muscovado mill.
05:36I also went to the traditional sugar processing area.
05:41So after you get the juice from the raw sugarcane, where does it go?
05:44We put it into these awas, and it's boiling.
05:48You can see it's boiling in there, and the juice will boil,
05:52and it comes in with mostly water in the juice.
05:55So we have to boil the water out, and as the water comes out,
05:59it will concentrate to a syrup.
06:01So when you squeeze out the juice, it's not this color.
06:05Sort of a greenish-brownish color.
06:08And then you boil it continuously so that the water in the juice will evaporate.
06:13Correct.
06:14And it will leave us just the sweetness.
06:16Good stuff.
06:19So that's the syrup.
06:20When it gets more concentrated at just the right time,
06:23we'll scoop it out.
06:25It'll come down into this tray.
06:27And when it comes out, we stir it with the shovel,
06:30and it'll turn into muscovado syrup.
06:35So you can see here in this part, it's a bit dry.
06:39There, it's slowly solidifying.
06:42Earlier, it was just like water, right?
06:44But now, it's slowly becoming thicker,
06:47which means it's cooling down, and it's becoming a solid form.
06:56So now, we'll put an electric fan so that it'll dry up.
07:03It might stick, Kuya!
07:06It's like it's just mixing cement.
07:09But we need to mix it continuously
07:11because we don't want it to stick too much.
07:14It'll be hard for us to crush it.
07:18It's worth the effort in making sugar
07:21because you'll definitely smile at the sweetness of its most delicious foods.