Market Refresher · Raw Cane Sugar and Lime
Papelón con Limón
Photo: Muago / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
The sweetener is a solid block of unrefined boiled-down cane juice, not table sugar — vendors dissolve it whole in water before adding the lime.
Papelón con limón is made by dissolving papelón — a solid brown block of unrefined cane sugar — in water, then adding fresh lime juice and ice. It's sold from stands and juice carts across Venezuela alongside arepas and empanadas, a cheap, tart-sweet cooldown from the heat.
Why it's made this way: Papelón (called panela or piloncillo elsewhere in Latin America) is one of Venezuela's oldest agricultural products, and this drink is the simplest, most everyday way it's consumed.
More from Venezuela
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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