brown sugar v. white sugar

To make sugar, juice is extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets and impurities are removed. The juice is then concentrated through boiling and seeded with sugar to promote the growth of additional sugar crystals. The resulting mixture is centrifuged to separate out the sugar crystals from the brown, viscous molasses. The raw sugar crystals are then refined into granulated white sugar through repeated filtering and bleaching.

• White sugar is nearly pure sucrose. Brown sugar is either partially refined sugar that still contains between 3 and 7% molasses, or more often, refined white sugar to which molasses has been added.
• Brown sugar has a richer, more intense flavor than white sugar.
• The molasses in brown sugar attracts water, making it more soft and moist than white sugar. If left unsealed, it will dry and harden.
• Brown sugar crystals are usually smaller than granulated sugar crystals.
• Although brown sugar contains traces of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium, they aren’t present in nutritionally significant amounts.
• Brown sugar has fewer calories by weight, because of its higher water content, but more calories by volume, owing to denser packing from smaller crystals.

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