Question from shelley
I appreciated your article on unrefined cane sugar, but I am still a little confused by the terminology. Are you saying that the brand names Rapadura, Sucanat and Alter Eco Ground Cane Sugar are the sugars that you recommend and are calling “unrefined cane sugar”?
Because you also say under “Evaporated Cane Juice”, when you describe the processing, that it produces a powder, not a crystal, and this is what you recommend as “unrefined cane sugar”.
What color is this powder?
Are you calling Sucanat a powder? I don’t think of Sucanat or the other brands you mentioned above as a powder because they are so grainy. You also said this “powder” is ground very fine and sold as organic powdered sugar.
In my natural foods store, evaporated cane juice is sold in bulk as a white (slightly greyish)powder, nothing like Sucanat. If Sucanat were ground to a fine powder it would still be brown, nothing like organic powdered sugar.
I am writing a cookbook and these definitions are very important to me also. I would appreciate the clarification.
Debra’s Answer
Rapadura and Sucanat are sugars I am calling “unrefined cane sugar.” I have no experience with Alter Eco Ground Cane Sugar so I can’t speak to that.
I used to call Rapadura and Sucanat “evaporated cane juice” but that term is now widely misused, so I chose “unrefined cane sugar.”
What I mean by “unrefined cane sugar” is a powder that is NOT crystallized, but simple the juice from the sugar cane with the water evaporated out. The powder is about the color of refined brown sugar.
I am calling Sucanat a powder. Yes, it is grainy, but in comparison to crystallized sugar, it is a powder. When ground very fine and sold as organic powdered sugar, it is an off white, it is not still brown. If you make icing out of organic powdered sugar and refined powdered sugar and put them side by side, you will see how brown it is.
