Coimbatore has been unusually hot and I’ve been guzzling water and nimbu pani. Hearing me complain that I was tired of nimbu pani, a colleague’s son suggested I try sugarcane juice. “Where in Coimbatore can I get it?” I asked eagerly. He directed me to Dr. Karumbu. Run by Arunprasath and Manikandan, Dr. Karumbu offers plain sugarcane juice, sugarcane juice with lemon, mint, ginger and mocktails in which cane juice is used as a base. I tried the Cane Rasam, which had chilli, mint, ginger, and lemon juice. The hint of spice from the chilli offsets the sweetness of the cane juice. Another must-try is the Coconut Cane Juice, which is a mix of tender coconut water, honey and cane juice. Another friend recommends the Watermelon Cucumber Punch. And none of this has any added sugar. “White sugar is bad for health,” chorus the partners. They also offer a takeaway option, though Arun cautions that you have to drink the juice in a few hours. “Don’t keep for more than a day even if it is in the fridge,” he warns. The duo is clear that they don’t want to use preservatives. They are getting requests to bottle and sell the juice but “if we can figure out a way to do that without adding any chemicals we’ll try it,” says Arun.
Arun and Manikandan started the cane juice business in 2009 as a counter in a shop in Race Course. But they realised that this did not add any value to their brand. So in 2011 they opened their first Dr.Karumbu outlet in Nehru Nagar. “In the Race Course counter, we also offered fast food. But we soon realised that it was unhealthy,” says Arun. So when they opened the Nehru Nagar outlet, they decided not to add any food to their menu. “How can we sell something that we would not feed our families?” asks Arun. They took advice from a friend who was in the food business and came up with a set of mocktails. “We try it out first among ourselves and our family,” says Manikandan. Having noticed that they use
only specific fruits like pineapple, cucumber, pomegranate and watermelon in their mocktails, I ask if there are any restrictions on the kind of fruits they can use. Arun nods. A mocktail with sapota, for instance, is overpoweringly sweet, he says. Apples are harvested just once a year and so are not fresh enough and grapes, he says, are dipped in pesticide. “We can’t peel the grapes,” he says.
The wall of their outlet has a poster that talks about the nutrients in sugarcane juice. Is that to make people feel better about indulging? Both Arun and Manikandan laugh. “Many people thought that just drinking a glass of juice would give them diabetes,” says Manikandan. Arun elaborates, “In the early days, everyone would talk about the sugar in the juice. We had to convince people that it was not unhealthy. The sugar in the juice is complex and the body takes time to process it. Drinking one glass is not going to lead to a spike in blood sugar levels.”
They are now trying to establish links with farmers who grow organic cane. “The best way is to go natural,” says Arun. And what better than a glass of this natural drink.
Dr. Karumbu has two outlets are at 13/11, Raja Annamalai Road, Near Hut Restaurant, Saibaba Mission Post, Coimbatore and at 127, Ramachandra Road, Opp. Kuttiappa Silks, R.S. Puram, Coimbatore. Contact 9443626667 for more details
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A road trip with family is always an unforgettable experience even if it was made in the intense heat. When cousin Mythreyi handed around small white paper cups of cold sugarcane juice, it seemed sweeter than nectar. We gulped down several helpings and then I came to know that it was from a shop! I am usually wary of store-bought juices primarily due to hygiene reasons, but I was assured that this particular place was extremely clean, I had to go and check it out.
Cane4u has an outlet at Ramanathapuram on Trichy road and is an enterprise belonging to Sujith, Gautham and Chandru. They are passionate about healthy lifestyle and that’s what led to opening this natural juice shop, last year. The store is a small but comfortable space. There is writing on the wall telling us about the various health benefits of sugarcane juice. Anyone who walks in can see how the juice is made. The sugarcane is stripped of its purple coat and kept under refrigeration. The juicer is a high grade stainless steel machine with basic filters along with a few improvisations made by Sujith. He and Gowtham are cousins and together they run a foundry unit. The filters are regularly cleaned and gloves are used while the sugarcane is fed into the machine.
The pure sugarcane juice is referred to as ‘natural cane’. It forms the basis for all of the mocktails offered at the shop. They use no processed sugar at all. The sweetness for the other blends comes from this natural cane juice.
The juice is made on order. Sugarcane juice has a shelf life of only an hour and a half even under refrigeration, so it cannot be made ahead of time and stored. That’s why they are brainstorming to find other ways to make this highly perishable product more easily available to consumers. One of their ideas is to have a mobile juice production and distribution outlet.
Now that the shop is picking up business, Gautham wants to make the transition to organic sugar cane. They own farms themselves where they are cultivating organic lemons at the moment. They firmly believe in using seasonal ingredients. Amla, mango, watermelon are all on their list of juices for summer. They want kids to drink natural juices rather than reach for aerated one. And here’s the other thing, the waste sugarcane pulp/fibre is apparently a major ingredient in the paper cup manufacturing industry. They definitely want to go down that route in the near future.
BOX: Cane4u is more than happy to fill bottles brought by customers so that they minimise the use of plastic bottles.
Cane4u is located opposite Alvernia School, Near Nalan Hotel, Ramanathapuram.
For details call: 94894 62599/97871 15155
250ml of Natural cane juice is Rs.20
They also undertake door delivery.
