Unrefined Cane Sugar

When I started writing this website, this section was called "Evaporated Cane Juice," because that's what it said on the labels of unrefined cane sugar. However, since, this term has been used on cane sugar that is bleached and refined to varying degrees, so to be specific, I'm going to use the term "unrefined cane sugar" on the pages of this website to describe the sweetener I am recommending. [NOTE: "evaporated cane juice" on a product label could be cane juice at any degree of refinement listed below, unless otherwise indicated.]

Unrefined cane sugar is sold under the brand names Rapadura, Sucanat, Alter Eco Ground Cane Sugar, and probably others I don't know about.

Refined white sugar is made from sugar cane or sugar beets. This is the unrefined sugar, which, when refined, becomes common white table sugar.

At this point in time, there is a lot of mislabeling going on. "Evaporated cane juice" sounds a lot more natural than "refined sugar" and there are no regulations I could find for use of the term "evaporated cane juice." Therefore, I'm going to explain the different stages of refining so you will understand the different kinds of cane sugar when you see them, and be able to choose appropriately.

FRESH SUGAR CANE

First, there is the fresh sugar cane. A field of sugar cane ready to be harvested is a beautiful sight. I've driven through mile after mile of fields in southern Florida. Harvesters cut the whole stalk, which is called the "cane".

The cane is very fiberous. Where sugar is grown, it is common for the workers and locals to chew on pieces of fresh-cut cane to extract the sweet juice. Commercially, the cane is pressed to remove the juice from the fiber. This is raw cane juice, raw, as in uncooked. As a whole food it still retains its vitamins and minerals. It also retains its natural balance of sucrose, glucose, and fructose instead of being straight sucrose (refined white sugar is straight sucrose).

I have had raw cane juice and it is delicious. A local restaurant here in Florida has a sugar cane press in the bar to make cane juice for tropical alcoholic drinks. They squeeze fresh raw cane juice for me by request to sweeten my ice tea. I have searched for a manual sugar cane press that could be used at home, to no avail. Pressing the cane to extract the juice requires a lot of pressure and electric machines that do this cost thousands of dollars. I wonder how they pressed the cane for juice before industrialization?

EVAPORATED CANE JUICE

After the juice is extracted, it is processed with slaked lime (a mineral), which removes dirt and other remnants from the field. It is then "evaporated" by boiling off the water and using a steam process. The dry powder that remains is unrefined evaporated cane juice. This is the unrefined cane sugar that I recommend. It is a powder, not a crystal. It is cooked at this point, not raw. It is also ground very finely into powdered sugar, sold as organic powdered sugar, which I also use in recipes.

These natural cane sugars processed "low-tech" contain components essential for their digestion and are metabolized more slowly than white sugar. They are whole foods that still retain vitamins and minerals and the natural balance of sucrose, glucose, and fructose.

"RAW" SUGAR (also called TURBINADO and DEMERARA)

In the next step, the sugar is further boiled, heated to a temperature where sugar crystals form. As the sugar is heated, it becomes a "mother liquid" full of solid sugar crystals floating about. This mixture is then spun in a certrifuge to separate the the crystals from the liquid, leaving a crystal that is still coated with the liquid.

The crystals are then dried and put into storage. This is raw sugar, but raw only in the sense of being in or nearly in the natural state, not processed or purified, not being in it's polished, finished, or processed form (refined white sugar being the "polished, finished" form). But it is not raw as in "not cooked," as it has been boiled. [This is the sugar sold as the brand Sugar-in-the-Raw. I've also seen it sold as "muscovado" sugar. Historically and in other parts of the world, it is and has been called jaggery, gur, khandsari, piloncillo, and chancaca.] This is also called turbinado sugar, as it has been spun in a turbine. It has a large, sparkling crystal that looks nice sprinkled on top of cookies. The description of demerara sugar fits this as well.

Note that at this point we have 1) evaporated cane juice, which is the whole food with water removed, and 2) raw sugar, which has been crystallized, removing most of the impurities, but still leaving a thin coating of the mother liquid.

REFINED SUGAR

Then the refining begins.

The first stage is to remove the layer of mother liquor on the crystals. This is done by mixing the raw sugar with a warm, concentrated syrup of slightly higher purity, all of which is centrifuged again to separate the crystals.

The crystals are then dissolved, boiled, and crystallized again into white sugar.

The leftover mother liquor is molasses. It contains all the nutrients that have been removed from the sugar. I also recommend this as a sweetener.

Brown sugar is white sugar mixed with molasses.

All other sugars--confectioner's (also called powdered), castor, superfine, etc--are all refined sugar of different sizes.

Granulated refined sugars are pure sucrose and contain no nutrients beyond calories. They are a "pure" industrial product.

ORGANIC SUGAR

If a cane sugar is labelled "organic" it means only that it is grown without pesticides using organic agricultural methods. It has nothing to do with the degree of refinement.

There is also a organically grown granulated sugar that looks a lot like an "off-white" sugar. It is almost indistinguishable in taste from white sugar. I have seen it labeled "evaporated cane juice." Yes, it is made by evaporating cane juice, but the mother liquor molasses has been removed. It is less refined than bright white sugar, but not by much.

CANE SUGARS AND BLOOD SUGAR

If you are concerned about how these various cane sugars affect blood sugar, I've found that the unrefined cane sugar affects my blood sugar very little, and this has also been stated by manufacturers of these sugars. Crystallized "raw" sugar will raise blood sugar and there is more and more rise as sugar becomes more refined.