By 
There’s no better taste in the world than the first sip of sugarcane juice in the sweltering heat. Sugarcane juice is a widely popular street drink in places like Egypt, India, Brazil, South East Asia, and a few islands in the Caribbean.
Sugarcane juice is the liquid extracted from the sugarcane stalks. The benefits of drinking it are endless! Here are a few:
- It’s packed with minerals like phosphorus, calcium, potassium, zinc, and iron.
- Because of its high fiber content, it keeps you fuller for a longer time and helps you lose weight.
- It replenishes the loss of water and glucose, so it’s ideal if you’re sick or dehydrated.
- It’s high in potassium and supports the health of vital organs, like kidneys.
- It helps combat acne. Sugarcane juice contains alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) like glycolic acid, which is widely used in skincare. I use it three times a week!
- Due to its low glycemic index, sugarcane juice has proven to be beneficial for people with diabetes. However, you should consult with a doctor about the recommended intake.
- It eliminates bad breath and strengthens your teeth.
I also wanted to share a personal story about the wonderful anti-inflammatory properties of this miraculous drink. Every time I’m on my cycle, I’m bedridden on the first day. A week before my cycle began, I drank a few sugarcane juice bottles that were given to me by Rey, owner of Raw Cane Super Juice. I’m happy to report that this was the first pain-free period I’ve had in my life!
Unfortunately, since sugarcane juice is not a mainstream drink, there are a lot of common misconceptions.
On Reddit, someone asked for opinions about sugarcane juice on the nutrition thread. Two users commented:
“It’s a drink with virtually no fiber and full of highly concentrated sugars, definitely not a health drink.” Someone else said “I mean it’s extremely high in sugar (which is why it tastes nice). It would be one of the last things on my list of healthy drinks.”
Oh, If they only knew!
Many naysayers who villainize natural sugars won’t bat an eye when ordering a large soda at the movie theater. Let’s not forget the prebiotic soda trend. In the last few years, people have been raving about prebiotic sodas that claim to be good for your gut and boost your health. Without going too much into it, Poppi has an ongoing lawsuit due to its misleading health benefits.
Why is sugarcane juice not as popular as other drinks if it is so healthy? Not every country has sugarcane plantations, and once the sugarcane is juiced, it has a very short shelf life. Moreover, it’s expensive, it needs to be stored in a big room, and it produces a lot of waste. None of these factors are cost-effective for food conglomerates.
All the sugarcane that comes from out of state or another country goes through a process called Plant Quarantine. This law is issued by the California Department of Food and Agriculture to prevent the spread of pests. There are two steps in this process: heating and freezing.
First, the sugarcane is pasteurized, which involves heating it at a high temperature to kill any bacteria or microorganisms inside. After pasteurizing the sugarcane, they freeze it. By doing this, the natural essence of the sugarcane juice is completely stripped away. The state agriculture laws are notoriously strict!
If you google sugarcane juice shops in Los Angeles, there are quite a few! However, many of these shops use sugarcane from other countries that have been subjected to the rigorous Plant Quarantine law. The result? A very mild sugarcane juice flavor that’s drowned in an excessive amount of ice. It’s also more convenient for them to get cheap sugarcane imported other countries and then freeze it to extend the shelf life. Frozen sugarcane can last up to two years.
Thankfully, California is one of the few US states with sugarcane plantations, but sourcing it locally is more expensive.
When I was doing my sugarcane juice tour around LA and OC, I saw many of these shops falsely advertise their sugarcane juice as 100% fresh — and the average US consumer doesn’t know the difference.
Wellness influencer John Kohler did an amazing video on this. He went to a sugarcane shop that uses frozen sugarcane from Vietnam, and then he went to Fresh Canes Juice in Rosemead, which uses fresh sugarcane from California. This place, owned by Jason Lee, is featured in this article!
Before I knew about frozen sugarcane, I noticed a big difference in the flavor between the three sugarcane juice shops in this article and other places. If the juice was very yellow, it tasted sugary. If the juice was dark green, there was a lot of depth in the flavor.
This information is not meant to put down other shops. However, the next time you want to buy a cup of sugarcane juice, you can make your own discernment on where you want your $6-$8 to go. Shelley, owner of SweetCane, told me that some people preferred the sweet flavors from other shops.
Is frozen sugarcane bad?
There’s a lot of controversy around this topic. Rey, co-owner of Raw Cane, uses fresh sugarcane from their farm in Central Valley, but sometimes they freeze it. It’s important to note that Raw Cane grows their sugarcane in California, so it’s not fumigated. She said:
“Sugarcane is a grass. When you freeze it, there’s a 2% enzyme loss. Remember that sugarcane is very resilient. Grass is the first thing that grows after a forest fire. It’s a very dominant cell structure. When you freeze it, is there that much damage to it? I doubt it. Throughout the year, we use fresh sugarcane from the farm, but sometimes we freeze it because our farm doesn’t harvest all year long.”
When you go to Raw Cane Super Juice, you can also request frozen juices. I took two frozen sugarcane bottles to the desert. When I thawed one of them, the color was dark green, which is indicative of strong flavor, nourishing minerals, and antioxidants. Even though it was frozen, the flavor was still very intense! Rey also recommended drinking it as a slushy.
On their website, Raw Cane discloses the use of their special freezing technique to properly preserve the minerals of the sugarcane. Additionally, because they ship nationwide, they have to freeze it. I think it’s awesome for them to provide sugarcane juice to people in other cities and states that don’t have access to it. Here’s what one customer from Northern California said:
“It’s always still frozen and tastes so fresh when I drink it, just like I am in Hawaii. I have a place I can get it from here, but it’s shipped from Hawaii and not sure if it’s heat treated at all or has been irradiated prior to being shipped to California. Either way, nothing beats the taste of YOUR juice, and it’s local from California :-)”
Many shops that import their sugarcane from other countries use cheap sugarcane to begin with. If the sugarcane didn’t grow with good soil and then goes through the Plant Quarantine process, you’re not going to get any flavor in the juice. Jason Lee, owner of Fresh Canes, said: “What comes out is a syrup, you might as well drink soda.”
My goal with this article, besides sharing the places where you can get the best sugarcane juice you’ll ever have, is to educate people on the amazing benefits of this magical grass.
If you’ve never had sugarcane juice before, you’re in for a treat. Here they are!
SweetCane Juice
11301 W Olympic Blvd #105, Los Angeles, CA 90064 (WEST LA)
In 2023, Shelley quit her corporate job and opened SweetCane Juice, the first sugarcane juice shop on the West Side. Shelley’s goal is to spread the amazing benefits of sugarcane juice to Angelenos. She is very sweet (no pun intended) and I love her entrepreneurial spirit. If it’s your first time trying sugarcane juice and you live on the West Side, please support her!
SweetCane is located in a strip mall on the corner of Olympic Blvd and Sawtelle Blvd. If you can’t find parking outside of the shop, Shelley offers parking validation.
Before I interviewed Shelley, there was a customer of Indian descent who bought a gallon and one cup of sugarcane juice. Shelley said: “She just found out about SweetCane and comes here all the time”.
Hello Shelley! Can you tell me the backstory behind SweetCane?
I was born and raised in the Czech Republic, but my ethnicity is Vietnamese. In Vietnam, sugarcane juice is a very popular drink, especially in the summer. The first time I tried it was in Vietnam with my family. I was about 6 or 7. I’ve always had a sweet tooth, and once I tried it, it was love at first sight!
My family now lives in Orange County. There’s a big Vietnamese community there, and there are a lot of sugarcane places. Here in LA, there are only a few. So, I decided to bring it to LA! This is something that I’ve been thinking about, even when I was still in college. But I wasn’t serious about it. Last year, I quit my corporate job after being there for 7 years to do this full-time. I put all of my savings into this.
Could you tell me more about your sugarcane?
I have customers that don’t drink it for the taste, but for the benefits. Many people are surprised when they find out that sugarcane has benefits. Once you freeze it or somehow process it, those minerals disappear. I have customers who can tell the difference between fresh and frozen, especially those who grew up drinking it. At least, that’s what I’ve been told by my customers. I hope that people are aware that there are benefits when you use fresh sugarcane. It’s like when you freeze a fruit. It’s different than eating it fresh. The sugarcane I use comes from California.
What does sugarcane mean to you?
My ethnicity is Vietnamese, so I might be biased. Even though I didn’t grow up there, it’s my favorite drink in the world. When my mom was still living in Vietnam, she used to be a sugarcane street vendor! It’s something I enjoy drinking and has a lot of history within my family.
What can people expect when they come here?
Most of my customers that come here know what sugarcane is. Once in a while, I’ll have customers who come in, thinking that I just mix sugar and water (laughs). That’s not the case. This is raw sugar from the plant and it’s all-natural. It’s sweet, but you don’t feel the same as when you drink processed sugar. I think people should try it at least once, it’s ok if you don’t like it! Sugarcane juice is also a way to understand sugar better. Just because it has sugar, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad.
Can you tell me more about your other menu items?
The plain sugarcane juice is my number one seller. I have people who don’t even look at the menu, they just go straight for the regular sugarcane. However, I have a lot of customers from India and they really like the ginger sugarcane. I guess that’s the way they drink it there. I also have a lot of customers from Vietnam and they like the Kumquat, whereas Brazilian customers tend to go for the lime or the pineapple. I mix the sugarcane with other fruits, but the plain one makes half of my sales. Sometimes, people order the lime sugarcane juice because it’s sour and tones down the sweetness.
Note from Mariana: A few weeks ago, I tried the sugarcane juice with the Kumquat. I was hooked from the first sip! The hints of refreshing citrus completely elevated the taste of the sugarcane juice. Since I tried it, I’ve been back a handful of times just to get this specific combination. Shelley sells her sugarcane juice by the cup and by the gallon.
Sweet Cane Juice is also available through UberEats and DoorDash!
Raw Cane Super Juice
5301 Sunset Blvd # 7, Los Angeles, CA 90027 (EAST HOLLYWOOD)
The year 2006 was a significant year for Los Angeles. The frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry was taking over the city, paparazzi were out of control chasing Britney Spears, and reality TV was on the rise.
In that same year, the first sugarcane purveyor in LA was started by Rey Koo and Robby Whitelaw in Echo Park. Eighteen years later, Raw Cane Super Juice continues to educate people on the benefits of drinking natural sugars.
If this isn’t enough, Raw Cane is also a vendor at four Farmers’ Markets in LA! I was blown away by Rey’s love of sugarcane juice. Inside of the shop, there’s a book on display called Sugars that Heal by Emil I. Mondoa. In the interview, Rey shared with me some information that is compiled in this book. I learned so much that day!
Hello Rey! What is the story of Raw Cane?
My business partner Robby Whitelaw and I started it in 2006. We brought two different cultures in the way we consumed sugarcane juice. Within a year, we brought on Daniel Hutchinson, our company acupuncturist.
I’m from Taiwan, which is very tropical. Robby is from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. That’s where the sugarcane coast is located. Daniel’s roots are Barbados, Jamaican and the East Coast. Our idea was to spread sugarcane juice around the world. In 2006, Jamba Juice and Robeks were leading the way with powders. GMC was also really big at the time. There was this idea of fast nutrition.
I was a teacher at LAUSD for 6 and a half years. It was crazy to watch kids completely wind down by 10 am because of the refined sugars they consumed.
I also have lupus and when they discovered it in my first year in college, it was very advanced. This was in the late 80s. I was given pills that rendered me emotionally detached and suppressed my endocrine system. I needed to take charge of my life. So, I took out two things: refined sugar and dairy. Just by doing those two things, within four months, I got my personality back and I started healing physically and energetically. I’m in my mid-50s now. I have flare-ups here and there, but I like to treat it naturally.
Those were the influences as to why we started Raw Cane Super Juice.
There’s also a social component. We wanted to put something cute and social in a working-class community. Some people consider East Hollywood a food desert. It’s the forgotten portion of Hollywood. Also, me being an at-risk youth and working with other at-risks, I feel very tied to the work I do with my community.
Can you tell me more about the benefits of drinking sugarcane juice?
Cane juice is a stem cell and it’s a land grass. It has chlorophyll and natural steroids in it, like stigmasterol, which helps with inflammation. At Raw Cane, we do soil tests and we send our juices periodically to a lab to check that the sugarcane is good and that we don’t have things we don’t want. This is important to the integrity of the juice.
This juice is not just a superfood, it’s extremely sensitive. Grasses are very intuitive because they’re the first form of life. It’s a very simple biostructure. I love working with it in its primal form, and I also love the fact that it offers us natural immunity and protection. This goes back to putting things in your body that are whole and unadulterated. Nature to me is already at her best. When you take a sugarcane stalk out of the ground and squeeze it, what comes out is the natural form of this incredible grass. This is the grass that feeds an elephant! How awesome is that? But the industry diminishes sugarcane to just sweetness and nothing else. I want to release her from the propaganda.
What sugarcane does for your body is delicious, it’s nourishing, and your body feels it right away. There was a client that came here who was having an insulin issue because they were diabetic. When he drank sugarcane juice, he said: “Oh! I feel normal again.” Sugarcane juice can take a spike in sugar level and bring it to normal. It’s a grass and there are so many minerals.
While I was doing my research on sugarcane juice, I came across a few comments that said that sugarcane juice was really high in sugar and there wasn’t any nutritional value to it. What would you say to those people?
It’s not their fault because they’ve been the product of billions of dollars that are pumped into the propaganda of the refined sugar industry. It’s ruthless and inhumane. I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t been affected by it. Once you see the sugarcane in its natural form and see how it’s made, people might change their minds. Most people in the United States have never seen a sugarcane stick.
The body is very intelligent. Let’s say you take a piece of sugarcane and chew it, then you take a teaspoon of brown sugar. You’re going to get energy from both sugars, but with the sugarcane, you’re not going to crash like when you do with coffee or refined sugar. The nature of refined sugars is taking elements of your body, and when it has nothing to take, it causes further disease. When we’re young, the body can get through refined sugars, but when it gets older, it’s different. Refined sugars are directly correlated with tooth decays and cavities.
I look forward to a future when we start looking at how we can avoid sweetness that doesn’t serve us. When you eat a fruit, it gives you all these benefits. Unfortunately, we’ve given that up, or worse, we mix it with refined sugars. I looove acai bowls, but it’s very hard to find one without refined sugar. There’s Roots & Rye in Echo Park. They mix their acai bowl with pineapple, which is still sweet, but it’s not refined.
I urge people to think about these things. When you crave something sweet, allow yourself to indulge in it, but after you have real sweetness, sugars that serve, like a bowl of fruit or something that’s whole and nourishing, and then go for the dessert. Everybody loves sweets, it’s a natural human thing. Our body needs sugar to run on.
I make fruit desserts all the time. What I noticed about young people that are addicted to refined sugars is that they keep craving it because the body keeps going empty. It’s a very physiological addiction. The body is like “Give me more”.
How does the growing process of the sugarcane affect the flavor of the juice?
The growing practice is soooo important. The soil should always be tested. Sometimes they grow the sugarcane in trenches so that you don’t have mudslides, but that soil is void of minerals because it’s constantly on a wash being depleted. So the sugarcane is going to taste watery. I love the word elemental. You need to taste the element of the sugarcane juice. Also, many places use a lot of ice. They fill up the cup all the way to the top and then they add a little bit of sugarcane juice on top – of course it’s going to taste watery. Some people that come here for the first time complain that our sugarcane juice is expensive, I’m like, “Do you see any ice?”
Grass is a very dominant cell structure. When the flavor is dull, you have to question how it’s grown. Grass doesn’t taste mild. It’s strong. We get calls all the time from local farms offering sugarcane because the wind season is about to come. It doesn’t have that much flavor and tastes watery because that sugarcane is not grown to be juiced, it’s grown to be a windguard to stop the wind.
Note: Here are a few pictures of Raw Cane’s farm in Northern California.
What does sugarcane mean to you?
Sugarcane juice means deep, vibrant, stem cell and health. It’s the staff of life. In alternative medicine or as I like to call it, ancient people’s medicine, there’s a thing called the doctrine of signatures. The doctrine says that nature repeats itself. Walnuts look very similar to a brain and they’re good for brain support. Kidney beans for the kidneys. Raspberries for the red blood cells. Sugarcane, in its raw unadulterated form straight from the soil, represents the spine. The spine is the super highway to the entire vibrancy of the human body. The juice is the blood of this tall grass stalk. When we consume it, we’re getting the best of vibrancy. Primal vibrancy.
How was the sugarcane juice scene in LA 15-20 years ago?
Wow! We were very alone (laughs). We started as a cottage business in 2006 out of our front yard in Echo Park. In 2009, we got this juice bar.
Not to say that we were the only place that offered sugarcane. In 2006, there’d be your ethnic restaurant that would juice some sugarcane once in a while, and it was exciting. But we were the first company to put all of our focus on it. I think we’re also the only company that compiles all the research for it. It was so hard to get the nutritional facts because the USDA didn’t have it in their database. All they could give us was 100% sugar from the cane. So we paid Malaysia and Australia to do the conversions of the nutrients. We were also the first ones to put the coconut meat in its raw form, and name it the 50/50 sports drink. This was all before coconut water blew up.
I still live in Echo Park, but I got kicked out by that landlord (laughs). He said that our front yard starting to look like a market in South East Asia. We had coconuts and sugarcanes up and down the stairwell. But it was cool because the kids in the neighborhood got engaged, and kids are hungry for truth.
This is not a sugarcane question! I’m just curious, what are your favorite restaurants in LA?
I love to eat at Au Lac in Downtown LA. I also love Chinese Hot Pot and I eat a lot of it in San Gabriel Valley. One of them is called Monland Hot Pot City. They can make you a completely vegan base with wild mushrooms, healing herbs, and sweet potatoes. If I want to indulge, Crossroads on Melrose. Their zucchini flower is amazing. Those people know how to fry!! It’s not the healthiest, but OMG, it’s so good. I also love Planta Cocina. Their oyster mushrooms are very nice. The location in Marina del Rey is nicer than the one in Brentwood because you’re right by the water. For sweets, I like Roots & Rye in Echo Park for their acai bowl. They mix their acai with pineapple, but I usually make my own fruit desserts.
What can people expect when they come to Raw Cane?
You’re coming into the Raw Cane super world of deliciousness and sweetness. Anything you choose is going to be good for your body. We geek out about sugarcane and we like to talk about it. Most of the people that work here were clients, so they were fans already. Kevin, the person that you saw gathering boxes for our market tomorrow, has been a customer since 2010. The sugarcane speaks for herself. We’re just here to make sure she has a stage.
Besides your sugarcane juice, what other drinks do you recommend?
People love our smoothies because everything we put is completely whole. We’re into sourcing. With COVID, it wreaked havoc on us because a lot of companies shut down. It can take me a year to find the right vanilla, or the right Moringa, or the right Carob. That’s my obsession.
Yesterday, someone who deals with cacao came in. She asked me what cacao I used. When I told her that I used Dominican cacao, she was impressed. It’s silky, smooth, and has the highest fat, which feeds the brain. It’s also more expensive and goes rancid a lot faster. They don’t put out cacaos like that because they want to make the most money. Again, it’s this constant narrative that we have to work with.
Note from Mariana: Besides getting the regular sugarcane juice, I highly recommend trying their coconut water. It’s the best coconut water I’ve had outside the United States. I also love their Calamansi Cane juice!
Some of their drinks are available at Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park and Fresco Community Market in Highland Park.
Fresh Canes Juice
9008 Garvey Ave, Ste F, Rosemead, CA 91770 (SAN GABRIEL VALLEY)
Founded in 2014 by Jason Lee, Fresh Canes Juice is a haven of sugarcane juice and natural fruits. If you have any ailment, Jason will make the perfect concoction for you!
Once a week, Jason drives down to Calexico, a border town south of Coachella Valley to pick up the sugarcane. Unfortunately, the weekly three-hour drive to Calexco and the three-hour drive back to LA has taken a toll on his truck. He said that the engine had blown up last week and that the truck was at the repair shop. I have my utmost appreciation for all the hard work these business owners put in to ensure we get the best sugarcane juice.
Jason also infuses the sugarcane juice with other natural fruits, tea, ice cream, and even coffee! Since most people like to add sugar in their coffee, Jason wants people to experience the taste of coffee with natural sugar.
He said: “I hope people can see all the work that goes into this. When I mix the sugarcane juice with coconut coconut juice, it’s from the coconut itself, in its natural form. The same thing goes with pineapple or other fruits. It’s all natural.”
There are two menus. On one menu, you have the option to mix the sugarcane juice with any fruit. The second menu features Jason’s specialty drinks.
I asked him why the sugarcane juice without ice was more expensive than with ice. He said: “We buy by the pound. We use measure the juice that goes into each cup. The extraction of each sugarcane is money. The less ice, the more juice you get.”
I first had a sample of his regular sugarcane juice. It was so different from the rest I had tried, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “It’s a lot more earthy”, he said. It was a little bit sweet, but the grassy and earthy flavors were the stars of the show. With the small amount of ice he added, it was absolutely delicious. This is sugarcane juice at its finest!
Then, he gave me a magical drink called Just Beet It, which had beets, watermelon and of course, sugarcane juice. Jason made a joke about calling this drink The Vampire Drink because of the red color.
Think of a fruit-flavored lollipop, but completely natural without any artificial sweeteners. That’s what it tasted like! I loved it so much that I went back the following day. Jason is an absolute gem and I could tell that he was very loved by his customers. When I went there, it was finally a hot, clear summer day in LA – the shop was very busy! There was an Indian customer who was very specific when he ordered his sugarcane juice. “Light on the ice, please”, he said.
This Indian customer, alongside many patrons who walked in that day told me that Jason’s sugarcane juice was the best. One of his loyal customers was Henry, who had been going there for 10 years. “I’ve tried other sugarcane juice shops, but I always end up coming back to Fresh Cane. It’s the best,” he said.
After the interview, he showed me the back of his shop. There was a big storage room where he kept the sugarcane. He also showed me firsthand how he juiced the sugarcane in the machine. It was beautiful to see the large chunk transform into a vibrant and nourishing juice.
Hello Jason! Why did you start Fresh Canes?
It all has to do with my health. Back in 2007, I was diagnosed with neck cancer and went through many radiations. It spreaded from the inside out. I couldn’t even swallow my own saliva. I was in pain. A friend suggested to try sugarcane juice because it was good for the throat. I tried it and I loved it. Between 2013 and 2014, I did a whole year of research on sugarcane juice: health benefits, sugarcane juicers, and where in LA it was available.
When I opened the shop in 2014, it was originally called Dr. Jolly Sugarcane Juice. The logo was a sugarcane stick wearing a white doctors’ uniform. That character caught people’s attention and made them ask a lot of questions. I ended up changing the name and removing the cartoon because people thought we were a doctor’s office.
Thankfully, there’s so much information now on Google and Youtube.
In the US, many people are overweight and have high blood pressure. When they hear sugarcane juice, they demonize it. Sugarcane juice has a lot of properties, minerals and nutrition. People should drink it more instead of soda. Unfortunately, the soda industry has a lot of power to deny the small business like us.
Can you tell me more about your sugarcane and the growing process?
Benson Farm is a family-owned business that has been around for 93 years. I go there once a week to pick up the sugarcane. California is the best US state to grow sugarcane. The weather and the soil is the best, and there’s also a lot of water. Sugarcane takes nine months to grow.
Southern California is the best state. There are other states with sugarcane plantations, but the soil is very different. Some of them are very muddy because it gets too much rain and mudslides.
Here in California, you have sand and good soil. The sugarcane loves that.
You infuse your sugarcane with other flavors. Can you tell me more about it?
This is all-natural, with no preservatives or sugar added. If I go buy an orange right now, it could be a sweet orange or a sour orange. Boxed orange juice from the grocery store is very consistent. They tweak it to taste the same. Here, we don’t do that. We give you what we get. We also infuse the sugarcane with ginger, lemon or pineapple. I juice the pineapple in the morning. By mixing the sugarcane juice with other fruits, we’re adding more benefits. With ginger, it’s going to clear up your veins, your arteries and your throat. If you’re under the weather, sugarcane juice with ginger is the perfect combination!
What is your goal with Fresh Cane Juice?
My goal is to share sugarcane with people who are interested in it. If you have an idea of a business or a franchise, I can supply the sugarcane for them all year-round. It’s teamwork!
If you go to any of these places, please let them know that you read the article! They’ll appreciate it. ❤️
