A natural nutrient, sugar, also known as sucrose, is a vital ingredient in our daily diet. Sugar, in whichever form, is a source of carbohydrates, essential to our health and well being.

Many shapes and colours

White or brown, granulated or caster, lump or cube sugar, icing sugar, candy sugar, demerara (or cassonade), soft brown vergeoise, preserving sugar - the world of sugar consists of nine varieties, each with its own taste qualities and specific uses.


While some sugars have established their pedigree, others, less well known, deserve to be discovered.  Because each sugar gives a special texture, colour or flavour to a recipe.

It works in so many ways

Sugar also displays a whole range of characteristics and tastes that affect the way it behaves when used. It is a sweetening, colouring, bulking agent and preservative. It can alter boiling and freezing points, affect the flavour and smell of  some foods and add bulk to others.


The first type of sugar to emerge from the various stages of the industrial process is granulated sugar, which is white or brown, depending on whether it comes from sugar beet or sugar cane.  It is also the source of other kinds of sugar.

White granulated sugar produces:

- caster sugar, obtained by grinding and sifting
- icing sugarB obtained by grinding
- preserving sugar, obtained by adding pectin and citric acid

White or brown granulated sugar produces:

- sugar lumps, obtained by moistening, compression and moulding
- sugar cubes, obtained by moistening, moulding, drying and breaking

3 other sugars are obtained using special processes:

- demerara (or cassonade) by direct extraction and crystallisation of sugar cane juice
- soft brown sugar (or vergeoise), extracted from beet sugar syrup
- candy sugar obtained from very slow crystallisation of highly purified sugar syrup