Nước Mía

the cane juice of the Vietnamese street: whole stalks run through a roller press with a kumquat fed through alongside them, so the citrus oil goes in with the juice, and poured straight over ice

Origin: Vietnam

From the journey of Sugar Cane.

Nước mía means, quite simply, water of the cane, and it is the ordinary hot-weather drink of every Vietnamese town. The presses stand outside schools, at market entrances, and on any corner with shade: a set of steel rollers, hand-cranked in the countryside and motor-driven in the cities, through which the stall-holder feeds whole peeled stalks two or three times, folding the crushed fibre back on itself to squeeze out the last of it. What distinguishes the Vietnamese version from the cane juice of Cuba or India is one detail of technique. A whole kumquat, or sometimes a lime or a knot of pandan leaf, is fed through the rollers together with the cane, so that the citrus oil from the crushed skin goes into the juice along with the acid; the result is markedly more fragrant and much less flatly sweet than pressed cane alone, and it is why a glass of nước mía tastes of something more interesting than sugar. It is served in a plastic bag with a straw or in a tall glass packed with ice, drunk within minutes, and it does not travel: cane juice ferments and turns grey within a few hours, which is precisely why it belongs to the street and not to the bottle.

Ingredients

Juice

  • 3 kg fresh sugar cane stalks (or 1 litre of freshly pressed cane juice)
  • 6 whole kumquats (quất), or 2 limes
  • 2 leaf pandan, knotted (optional)
  • 1 pinch fine sea salt

To Serve

  • 1 kg crushed ice, to serve
  • 2 whole kumquats, halved, to garnish

Method

  1. Wash the cane stalks thoroughly, scrubbing the joints where soil collects, and dry them. Peel off the hard outer rind with a heavy knife and cut the pale inner cane into lengths that will pass through your press.
  2. Wash the kumquats and halve two of them, leaving the rest whole. Pass the cane through a cane press or heavy-duty masticating juicer, feeding the kumquats and the knotted pandan through the rollers alongside the cane.
  3. Pass the crushed fibre back through the press a second and a third time to extract the remaining juice, then strain everything through a fine sieve or muslin into a jug.
  4. Stir in the pinch of salt, taste, and add a squeeze from a halved kumquat if it is too sweet.
  5. Fill tall glasses to the brim with crushed ice, pour over the juice, drop in a kumquat half, and serve at once.

Notes

Fresh cane is sold by Vietnamese, Caribbean, and South Asian grocers, mostly in the cooler months, and frozen pressed juice is increasingly available and works well here, needing only thawing and the addition of kumquat juice and zest to approximate the pressed-together effect. Bottled pasteurised cane juice is a much duller drink and is usually sweetened. Kumquats are the authentic citrus and their peel is sweeter and more perfumed than lime; if using limes, add a strip of the zest to the press as well as the juice. Pandan is optional and southern. A shot of white rum or a spoonful of ginger juice both work well in a glass of nước mía, and in the Mekong delta the juice is sometimes blended with fresh coconut water.

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