Kamaba: Sumashi-oke(clarifying tub): Clarifying the juice

The sugar cane juice without lye is a light yellowish colored liquid. Before we boil it down, we clarify the juice.

No special washing is necessary before squeezing the sugar cane. As no sterilizer is used for growing sugar cane, we can use it just as it is. However, we do need to remove the sand and mud that come from the field. The process of separating and removing sand and mud is called "Sumashi(clarifying)".

The sugar cane juice from the aragama is put into a Sumashi-oke and allowed to stand for a while in order to separate and remove the sand and mud. The top, clear part is used in the next phase. Nowadays stainless steel tubs are used instead of wooden ones.

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