title: Laravel: How to check user auth for API routes without middleware('auth:api')
body: <p>how can i check if the current user accessing a method from a controller is authenticated,
  the API route in question is not guarded by any authentication middle, because the route is accessible to public and both guest users, i checked my request headers the Bearer token is being passed, am using a react router for my routes. and api driver is <code>passport</code></p>
  <p><strong>public route</strong>:</p>
  <p><code>Route::get('product/list', 'ProductController@index')</code></p>
  <p><strong>what've tried</strong>:</p>
  <ol>
  <li><p>Changed the default AUTH Guard to <code>api</code>.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Tried Explicitly calling the <code>Auth()-&gt;guard('api')-&gt;check()</code> in the controller method.</p>
  </li>
  </ol>
  <pre><code>    if (Auth()-&gt;guard('api')-&gt;check()) {
            return 'is_favourite';
      } else {
            return 'unauthenticated';
      }
  </code></pre>
  <ol start="3">
  <li>also called it like this <code>Auth()-&gt;check()</code></li>
  </ol>
  <pre><code>    if (Auth()-&gt;check()) {
            return 'is_favourite';
      } else {
            return 'unauthenticated';
      }
  </code></pre>
  <p><strong>Result</strong>:</p>
  <p>Always <code>'unauthenticated'</code></p>
  <p>Expected Results: result of <code>is_favourite</code> when a Bearer token is pass in the header, and 'unauthenticated' if no bearer token is supplied.</p>