Today we're going shopping for sweeteners, to participate in My Veggie Shopping, the challenge in #PlantPower hosted by our gentle and dear moderator @sirenahippie. Since there's less than half an hour left until the contest closes, it doesn't make much sense for me to invite you to participate, but hey, you can come check out our posts and maybe you'll be encouraged to participate in the next edition 😁

Special thanks to @sagarkothari88 for sponsoring the challenge 🖤🌿

Sweeteners are an issue in the world of veganism. Many people don't even know that "agave honey" exists, that veganism excludes the use of bee "honey", or that refined white sugar also faces negatives.

First of all, I want to tell you that these are the sweeteners I've bought on this occasion: cane honey and cane sugar. I paid 63 cents for a 1 kilo "papelon," or cane honey piloncillo, and $2.68 for 1 kilo bag of cane sugar. Not bad.

At home, we're neither vegan nor vegetarian, but we do spend a week or two absolutely vegan, like 20 days out of 30 days of the month; for us, the transition is a long story involving health, work, and economic issues--the thing is that in Venezuela, being vegan while also healthy is extremely expensive for the working and, truth be told, impoverished middle class. Anyway, let's cut to the chase.

At first, I was very surprised to learn that veganism may exclude refined sugar; then I could understand it when I inquired about the refining processes, which could involve the use of animal bones. So when I go to the supermarket for sweeteners for my meals, I choose cane sugar and cane honey mostly (I also use fruit as sweetener, and more rarely, xylitol mostly for my father's desserts).

Usually, we go out on our bikes when we go for a few things to the supermarket and we don't take our cell phones with us, since in my city, we have to watch out for burglars; however, a couple of days ago I decided that I'd take my cell phone with me so I could take some pictures exclusively for this post. It was already dark and, as you can see, the street is quite dark.

We went to the Royal Automarket, a small supermarket, but with a decent variety of products.

In the third aisle, I was able to find Truvia and Splenda. I don't consume these types of sweeteners. I prefer to drink my coffee, tea, and infusions without any sweeteners. If you care to know, for nowadays we're all experts--huh--, I've read a lot about the relationship between regular consumption of Splenda and Alzheimer's disease. I just love my coffee without that, OK? And as far as Truvia is concerned, it contains additives in addition to the stevia leaf extract which I know almost nothing about (erythritol and natural flavors); I can also say that I just don't like its taste, even when it comes to the plain leaf; it tastes too bitter in my opinion, at least in the preparartions where I'd choose to use it, like my hot coconut milk mocha.

As you can see, the price of Truvia isn't there. In my experience, the guys at this super prevent themselves from showing you the price when they know you're going to freak out as soon as you see it 😅

Sugar for juice is not a topic of discussion in my house.

...since we--my husband and I--seldom drink any juice but eat the whole fruit instead; occasionally I make smoothies and sweeten them with frozen sweet fruit (e.g. mango or banana, like in mango and passion fruit Colada)-- sometimes, I do add a little cane honey or cane sugar.

So I was very lucky to find my favorite sweeteners at a very good price. The cane sugar was at the end of the fourth aisle, just a little more expensive than what I pay for it at another place called Agropecuaria Sol de Sucre, where I usually buy it.

In my city, you have to be very careful with your money, as there is a lot of price speculation. For example, if you go to EkonoQuesos, you'll pay $3.75 for the same bag of sugar.

At Royal Auto Market, I was able to find cane honey in two presentations: bar...

...and piloncillo.

Usually, the cheapest prices for cane honey in Cumaná, my hometown, are at the City Market, where not only you'll find it cheaper, but it'll always be fresher, since it's a product in high demand. It's widely used in soft drinks (e.g. popular "papelón con limón", or cane honey lemonade) and in our traditional snacks/desserts (e.g. Sweet Coconut Rice Pudding, both for home consumption and for sale. I've decided to come very little to this place, as it's quite unsafe and its hygiene's been neglected. But that's a long and sad story that I won't talk about in this post. Let's just say that if you're going to buy big quantities, you'd better take your precautions and venture to the City Market to save good money.

I make the piloncillo into cane honey and keep it in the fridge; I cut it into pieces and let it melt in half a cup of water over medium heat. This way, I can easily use it whenever I need it.

But until I cook the cane honey, one of my cats, Canela, is in charge of keeping it safe.

I keep the sugar in a plastic jar on my kitchen table.

I hope you've found this post useful, especially if you live in Cumaná 😁 Now you know you can find cane honey and cane sugar here at Royal Auto Market. Ah, and just for the record,I don't lend Canela, just in case you need a security guard for your sweeteners at home.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY(https://giphy.com/create/gifmaker) for all them.