Sugar cane was
introduced to Madeira around 1425, shortly after the
island was discovered, and was brought from Sicily.
The cultivation of sugar cane was a huge success,
and within 30 years Madeira had become Europe's
largest producer of sugar. The island has good
conditions for the production of cane and its
product, sugar: it has abundant water and wood that
can easily feed the mills – although irrigation
channels (the famous levadas) were needed to get the
water to where it was needed.
The first thing the
settlers did was to clear and burn the forests to
create fields for agriculture: wheat and sugar cane
did well in the volcanic ground. Sugar cane was the
cash crop of Madeira called ‘white gold’ and brough
great economic prosperity. A large number of slaves
from the Canaries and Africa were shipped to Madeira
to work in the industry, and construct fields and
levadas.
The construction of
the first mills saw sugar production explode. In
1500 Madeira was the largest sugar exporter in the
world. Its sugar was considered to be of superior
quality and much appreciated in the Portuguese
Court, England and Flanders. Madeiran production
was in strong competition with sugar from the
Mediterranean. The island saw an influx of traders
from all over the known world.
After this first
boom that was experienced in the 15th and early 16th
centuries, Madeira later had a hard time competing
with sugar cane from Bazil, and all its accessible
wood had been burned to refine the sugar. Sugar
cane plantations were converted into vineyards, and
the Madeira’s most important export became its
famous Madeira wine.
With the advent of
the 19th century sugar cane made a comeback,
particularly producing cane rum, the most important
element of
poncha (honey, lemon, and rum), and sugar cane
honey.
The sugar production
techniques used in Madeira used animal power
(oxen). Later, one of the island's assets, water,
was used. The water mill and the trapiche are then
used: usually a mill of cylinders used to grind
cane, with horizontal or vertical axes, moved by
animals or even by men. Latterly steam was used.
The sugar production
process, in a very basic way, is as follows. The
cane is harvested and ground within the first 48
hours, to retain as much sucrose as possible. In
the mill, after juice and bagasse are extracted, the
juice is cooked in boilers, filtered for impurities,
and concentrated in pans until it reaches the
consistency of honey. The honey is beaten to the
point of crystallization of the sugar. The sugar is
then broken and cooked again for the purpose of
refining, being placed in conical shapes known as
pão de açúcar. Finally, through washing, the sugar
is purged of the honey that could remain.
