Types Of Sugar
Barbados Sugar – A rich, moist and attractive dark brown sugar with a rather strong taste of molasses.
Brown Sugar – A generic term used to refer to a wide range of sugars including treated refined sugars, raw sugars, and organic sugars.
Beet Sugar - Sugar which is extracted from the sugar beet plant.
Candy Sugar – This term refers to large white sugar crystals which are grown from sugar which is highly refined.
Cane Sugar – Sugar extracted from sugar cane.
Castor Sugar – Sugar that is formed of very fine particles that can easily be dissolved in baking or cooking. Not to be confused with Icing Sugar or Powdered Sugar.
Chinese Sugar – Also sometimes known as rock sugar, this is sugar that is sold in large crystallized lumps. There are two main varieties of Chinese sugar, one with golden tones to it, and another that is opaque and white.
Coarse Sugar – A term referring to sugar in which the grains are larger than common sugar. These large grains have a wide range of food applications, perhaps most notably in decorative baking.
Coconut Sugar – Also known as Palm Sugar, Coconut Sugar is extracted from the sap of the Palm tree. It is an attractive golden brown color, and comes in a variety of textures, from gooey soft to hard, depending on the processing it has undergone.
Coffee Sugar – Specially treated sugar with a light syrup layer over the sugar crystal which imparts a unique flavor when used in coffee beverages. This is a dark brown sugar which contains much of the natural vitamins and minerals from whence it came.
Corn Sugar – This is another term for Dextrose.
Date Sugar – Whilst not technically a sugar, date sugar is produced by grinding up dried dates. The result is a highly nutritious, and sweet powder which is often used in baking and other recipes. The plus side of Date Sugar is that it contains iron, fiber, and many other minerals and vitamins. The downside is that it is expensive, and does not dissolve in water.
Demerara Sugar - A coarse golden brown sugar which is harvested from Mauritius, the sugar crystals retain a fine layer of syrup that imparts the flavor of molasses to other ingredients when it is used in baking or cooking.
Dextrose – A glucose sugar refined from cornstarch. Most often used in animal feed and pet food.
Foots Sugar - A dark brown sugar with a high liquid content and very syrupy, viscous nature.
Fructose - A natural sugar found in fruits, berries, melons, and even some vegetables. This is the
sweetest of all the natural sugars. Fructose is destroyed when sucrose (white table sugar) is being refined from raw sugars, which often contain some fructose before refining begins. Fructose is normally commercially produced by enzymatic hydrolysis from starch.
Fruit Sugar – Another term for fructose.
Gelating Sugar - This is a blend of standard granulated sugar and pectin. It acts as a gelling agent in some foods, and is commonly used for making jelly.
Glucose – A natural sugar, glucose is produced by many plants during the process of photosynthesis, and is also produced by conversion of other non carbohydrate intermediates inside the liver and kidneys of many animals, including humans. Commercially it is produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of starches. Some examples of sources of starch from which glucose can be produced are potatoes and maize, but there are many others.
Granulated Sugar – Sugar in granule form. Most refined sugar comes in granulated form because sugar crystals grow in a fashion that lends itself to granulation, and granules naturally pack down well for transport. They are also, generally speaking, easier to handle for consumers than lumps of sugar which must be broken down in order to be used.
Grape Sugar – Another word for glucose.
Sucrose - Also known as table sugar, white sugar, or refined sugar, sucrose is the most commonly traded sugar on the market today. Refined from sugar beet and sugar cane, sucrose is an easily digested micro nutrient that provides a quick rush of energy to the human body. In its most refined form it is a sparkling white, free flowing, odorless sweetener.
Icing Sugar - This is powdered sugar, generally ground down from ICUMSA 45 refined sugar.
Invert Sugar – Sugar that is 50% glucose and 50% fructose.
Jaggery - Unrefined cane sugar very high in minerals, and regarded as being a healthy alternative to refined sugar. It is organic, having no chemicals added to it at any stage of its production, and is even regarded by many as being a medicinal sugar. It is said of Jaggery that consuming it helps with ailments such as indigestion, coughing, and constipation.
Starch Sugar – Sugar derived from starch. See Glucose and Fructose.
Java Sugar - See Coconut Sugar.
Maltose - A rare natural sugar.
Malt Sugar – Same as Maltose.
Milk Sugar – Same as Lactose.
Lactose – A natural sugar found in milk. Causes many allergy problems in humans and other animals who may be unable to process it. Humans and animals with this affliction are called “lactose intolerant.”
Molasses – Thick, sweet, viscous liquid which is added to refined sugar to make brown sugar. Molasses is a by product of sucrose production that has many uses in its own right, as animal feed, for instance, or as a means of darkening refined sugar to make it appear brown.
Organic Sugar – Sugar grown without any chemical interference and without chemical refining.
Panela / Panocha / Piloncillo – This is sugar that is partially refined from Mexican cane. It is regarded by some as being more healthy because it retains much of the organic matter from which it was extracted, including some vitamins and minerals.
Palm Sugar – See Coconut Sugar.
Raw Sugar - Sugar which has undergone no refining whatsoever.
Refined Sugar – Sugar which has undergone refining processes including some or all of the following: Affination, Carbonization, Phosphation, Boiling,
Rock Sugar – Sugar formed into rocks by dipping string into a refined sugar solution and allowing crystals to form around it. Also sometimes known as Rock Candy.
Sanding Sugar – Another term for Coarse Sugar.
Sugar Loaf – Refers to a lump of refined sugar formed into a cone shape.