Imagine my excitement when I saw a juice stand at a market in Thailand. Lo Han Kao juice was one of the options. This is a dark brown juice of some fruit I have never heard of. It tastes like chinese plum or date, and is pretty good.  I wish I got a picture of the juice rather than just the sign (which didn't turn out great anyway), but it looked just like a dark brown iced tea, served with ice. It is sweet and supposedly good for your skin too. It's also sometimes spelled as Luo Han Guo, which I think might be the Mandarin Chinese version of the name.

According to Wikipedia, other names for this weird fruit are arhat fruit, monk's fruit, la han qua, and even a longevity fruit. It's used in Chinese medicine, mainly as a sweetener and is even used to create a sugar substitute because it is so sweet. But is also said to help with some illnesses such as heat stroke, larynx infection, cough, and diabetes. I can't vouch for any of these "cures," all I can say is that the juice does taste pretty good.

I tried this palm sugar juice at Samyan Market in Bangkok, Thailand. At the time I'd never heard of palm sugar juice before, I guess it comes from a palm tree, like a coconut or date tree. I'm still not too sure actually.

It tastes similar to regular sugar cane juice, but not as "fresh" or "green." it has a slight hint of coconut water taste, which makes me think it could be made from coconuts or something like coconut. It's very refreshing and also very sweet. It's light brown in color, which is a little more appealing than the neon green of the regular sugar cane juice.

I think that if you can get this palm sugar juice, go ahead and get it, but it's not much better than the regular sugar cane juice, for about the same price.

Sugar Cane Juice from Bangkok, Thailand

I've had a lot of sugarcane in my lifetime, usually chewing the stalk to get the sweet juice out. This is tough on your jaw and quite a bit of work for a little juice. You can't eat the fibers of the plant, so you have to spit them out and that can get a little messy sometimes too. Nevertheless, it is still one of my favorite snacks and I will get it whenever I see some. It's seasonal in most parts of the world, so it makes it a special treat when it is in season.

Only last year I got to try juice from sugar cane that's been pressed through a juicer machine that looks like a pasta roller. They stick the chopped up peeled cane into this machine and crank the handle, so these stands end up with fresh sugar cane juice plus a huge pile of dry flat stalk pieces. This particular one I got in a market in Bangkok, Thailand. It's light greenish yellow, like yellow Gatorade. Smells and tastes like a very weak but very sweet apple juice, but a little grassy like lemongrass tea. It's not quite as sweet as the palm sugar juice, which reminded me more of turbinado sugar. This cane juice was probably made out of the green sugar cane, which is less sweet than the black sugar cane, but in my opinion tastes a bit better.

The verdict? If you like the taste of sugar cane juice and just want something quick go for the juice. Otherwise, chewing on the actual sugarcane is much more satisfying.