If you're wondering why the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro are better at organising carnivals than we are, just look at the difference in what's produced with sugar cane.
In Hong Kong we extract the juice and drink it for a sugar rush to get us through a working day or a Mong Kok shopping spree.
In Brazil, they distil it to make the great rum-like party drink cachaca. Before 1888, Portuguese slave owners were likely to give a rot-gut version of the drink to their charges as they believed it made the workers toil harder.
In more enlightened times, connoisseurs sip barrel-aged versions of the spirit, said to be as complex as a single malt whisky.
Everyday versions are the basis for the muddled lime and sugar cocktail, caipirinha.
'Everyday' isn't a concern at the recently opened Star Street restaurant The Principal. You can get an idea of just how high-end the bar is when you note that even the marc, France's answer to grappa, is a Domaine de la Romanee Conti priced at HK$400 a glass.