In article >,
Doug Freyburger > wrote:


> Some folks can tell the difference between cane sugar and other sugars.
> I can if they are straight and side by side but not by the time they are
> further refined and used in a recipe. I remember being able to tell the
> old Coca Cola from the "Classic Coke". I'm not convinced that the only
> difference was the type of sugar used.
>
> There are root beer kits to make semi-home-made root beer. The kit I
> have is the Mr Beer type. You could brew a batch with two different
> types of sugar and see if you can tell the difference. I bet unless you
> use the obviously brown partially refined cane sugar you won't be able
> to tell.

I didn't realize that regular brown sugar was *ever* partially refined
sugar, but it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar

However:

"Brown sugar is often produced by adding cane molasses to completely
refined white sugar crystals in order to more carefully control the
ratio of molasses to sugar crystals and to reduce manufacturing
costs.[citation needed] This also allows the production of brown sugars
to be based predominantly on beet sugar."

Of course, if you buy something specifically labeled as partially
refined cane sugar, then I would assume that it is.

I just looked at my package of Safeway brown sugar. Ingredients are
sugar, invert sugar and cane molasses.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA