How Cane Sugar Is Made

Cane sugar has been the sweetener of choice for over 2,000 years. It is used in all types of foods due to its versatility. It enhances flavor, aroma, texture, and browning. It also helps retain moisture and preserve freshness. Sugar starts with sugar cane, a tall tropical grass that can grow up to 20 feet high. When it is ready for harvest, the tops are removed, Sugar cane is a renewable resource that doesn't have to be replanted to produce a new crop. After harvesting and transporting to the mill, the sugar cane is washed and cut into shreds. Next, huge rollers crush the cane really, really hard. This mixture goes down to the separators, where the fibers are removed and the juice is sent on to the evaporators, which are basically huge pots heated by a furnace burning the dried sugar cane fiber. How efficient is that? This syrup is thickened by boiling off the water. Once the syrup is cooled, it is time for it to be crystallized. To get crystals from the syrup, it is seeded with, well, crystals of sugar. Just a sprinkle is enough to kickstart the process. From there, it is moved into centrifuges, where centrifugal force squeezes out any remaining liquid, leaving, you guessed it, dry sugar crystals. Now the crystals are purified, decolorized, recrystallized, and dried in a large granulator. Next, they are sized by running them through a variety of screens, all to remove any impurities and make the sugar crystals just the right size and color. The end result is pure cane sugar. No bleaching or added chemicals required. Different types of sugar are created at various steps in this manufacturing process. Turbinado sugar has only been partially refined and only the surface molasses washed off. Brown sugar contains some of the surface molasses syrup, which imparts that characteristic molasses flavor. Granulated sugar is the last step in the manufacturing process. Now that the sugar is ready, there is one final step before it can be packaged and shipped. Every batch is tested in a lab to ensure that it meets the highest standard of quality. Because at Imperial Sugar and Dixie Crystals, we take great pride in turning pure cane into pure love, from our family to yours.