The Great Sugar Cane Shortage

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Last week I stopped by Eden Center in Falls Church to buy one of my favorite summertime drinks, “nuoc mia” also known as sugar cane juice. (In order to make sugar cane juice, they put stalks of sugar cane through a machine that crushes and squeezes the juice of out the stalks.) I went to the first bakery I knew that would sell it, only to have them tell me that they didn’t have any. “No problem,” I thought to myself, “There are at least a few dozen other bakeries here that will have it.” So to the second bakery I went, only to be disappointed again because they didn’t have any sugar cane either. Just as I was about to leave and go to another bakery, the cashier at the second bakery stopped me. “No bakery in Eden Center has sugar cane because there is a drought in Florida, why not try something else instead?” Left with no other choice, I reluctantly agreed to get Pennywort juice instead (which may have more nutritional benefits, it is no where as delicious or satisfying as sugar cane juice).

Today I stopped by Eden Center again, hoping yet again to get some sugar cane juice to cool me off from the summer heat. And yet again, I was disappointed and coaxed into buying something else (this time around it was avocado bubble tea). This time I asked the cashier when they thought they would be getting some in, and she responded that she had no idea because of the drought in Florida, which happens to be the source of all the sugar cane for shops in Eden Center. I went home and did some research and found this article from the Associated Press about the drought in Florida.

And while it is unknown when there will be sugar cane in Eden Center, you can bet I’ll be there again next week looking for it.

- Mai Nguyen

Tags: eden center, Gut Check, Mai Nguyen, Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Magazine, NoVA, Sugar Cane