Le Secret Du Galabe Pei Irt@la Petite Creole Dt 122033 32 BdMeet Alexis
Our aim is to reintroduce this traditional product into the popular culture and culinary tradition of Reunion Island
A journey of taste in Sainte-Suzanne: The secrets behind a typical Reunion Island sweet treat
We have a beautiful blue sky for our visit to the Payet & Rivière sugar factory, located right in the middle of the sugarcane fields of the Domaine de Bel-Air, in Sainte-Suzanne. “This micro-sugar factory stands on one of the island’s biggest plantations in terms of surface area”, explains Alexis Rivière, the company’s founder who is there to greet us. Everything here is open and within easy reach: it’s just a short walk from the cane fields to the extracting machines. And there’s a stunning view of the ocean!
Galabé, a family affair
This is where we’ll find out more about a local sweet treat made from cane juice, called galabé, which is Madagascan for ‘delicious’. “This is 100% organic cane juice”, says Alexis.
Lulled by the hum of the machines, we listen to Alexis, accompanied by our guide Samantha, who tells us the story of this two-hundred-year-old farm, closely linked to that of Alexis’s family. We learn that in 1815, France decided to introduce sugar production to its French colonies. ‘At the time, there were 182 sugar factories on our island!
Reunion Island now produces mainly sugar and rum, while production in the West Indies is focused mostly on rum. “At the time, there were 182 sugar factories on our island!
Nowadays there are only two, the Bois Rouge factory in the East and another, Le Gol, in the South”, Samantha tells us.
Following a succession of owners, this establishment was eventually taken over a century ago by the Payet family. In 1955, Monsieur René Payet, manager of the Quartier-Français factory, passed on his expertise to Maxime Rivière, his son-in-law. “Our family has been firmly established in sugar production for several generations, which is why we named the new firm Payet & Rivière, in tribute to our grandparents”, Alexis explains. New machinery was installed two years ago and work is underway to add a rum-distilling facility, but Alexis still keeps his sights on the family tradition.
“The authentic recipe for galabé sweets had all but disappeared by the 1970s, and it took a lot of research to finally trace it back to a grandfather from Saint-Pierre, who agreed to let us in on his secret”, explains Alexis.
“Why don’t we extract our own cane juice?”
Before we resume our tour of the factory, Samantha invites us to extract our own juice using a small, traditional sugarcane crusher. We take it in turns to feed the canes into the crusher, passing them twice to extract all of the juice. I had already seen this type of machine on the local markets of Reunion Island, where you can buy fresh cane juice, but this crusher is different. Our two passionate guides reveal that they deliberately retain the sugarcane bark to add a touch of chlorophyll to their juice, which produces a drink with a little more pep. We all love its unique taste and some members of the group cannot resist a second glass!
From sugarcane to galabé
Samantha then takes us into the factory where we find an enormous crusher and several vats. On this Tuesday morning, tonnes of freshly-cut canes arrive by tractor to be crushed. “This machine is from Colombia, it can crush up to 2 tonnes an hour!”, Samantha specifies. We can see the pure cane juice flowing into the filter. It is then sent to the enormous heated vats where its temperature will gradually increase until 90% of its water content has evaporated. These vats are heated by a fire that’s fed regularly by an employee with dried bagasse, the sugarcane residue left behind after extraction of the juice.
“You’ve just seen the very start of the transformation process”, Samantha recaps. “In peak season, from September to December, the machines operate 24/7 but, depending on which day you visit, you won’t always see the same stage of the galabé-making process.”
An artisanal product with a unique taste
Our guides state that they use much higher temperatures than industrial producers, which explains why their galabé has such a unique taste. “The fact that the factory is completely open means it’s naturally ventilated, which also helps to bring out the most subtle flavours”, Samantha continues.
The thickened syrup is then taken to the laboratory to be bottled up for selling, and the rest is transformed into galabé ‘sweets’ and packaged in nice little bags.
Time for a feast of syrup, caramel and sugar!
The much-awaited moment has arrived! At the end of the tour, Samantha lets us taste all the products, from syrup and caramel at various stages of refinement, to sugar and the famous galabé. We enjoy every mouthful of these products, all handmade on Reunion Island and free from additives, preservatives and colourings.
We note the subtle changes in taste from one product to another. The flavour reminds us of prune and raisin, with hints of caramel, roast coffee, chocolate, vanilla and liquorice. Our guide makes a few delicious suggestions of ways to use galabé: the syrup is good with ribs, in cakes or to flavour crêpes, cocktails or rum, while the caramel goes well with vinaigrette, citrus fruit or foie gras, for example.
We can’t wait to add some to our next recipes at home!
