Traditionally, sugarcane processing requires two stages. Mills extract raw sugar from freshly harvested cane and "mill-white” sugar is sometimes produced immediately after the first stage at sugar-extraction mills, intended for local consumption. Sugar crystals appear naturally in white color during the crystallization process. Sulfur dioxide is added to inhibit the formation of color-inducing molecules as well as to stabilize the sugar juices during evaporation. [30] [31] Refineries, often located nearer to consumers in North America, Europe, and Japan, then produce refined white sugar, which is 99 percent sucrose. These two stages are slowly merging. Increasing affluence in the sugar-producing tropics increased demand for refined sugar products, driving a trend toward combined milling and refining.
In most countries where sugarcane is cultivated, there are several foods and popular dishes derived directly from it, such as:
- Raw sugarcane: chewed to extract the juice
- Sayur nganten : an Indonesian soup made with the stem of trubuk ( Saccharum edule ), a type of sugarcane.
- Sugarcane juice: a combination of fresh juice, extracted by hand or small mills, with a touch of lemon and ice to make a popular drink, known variously as usacha rass , guarab , guarapa, guarapo, papelón , aseer asab , ganna sharbat , mosto , caldo de cana .
- Syrup: a traditional sweetener in soft drinks, now largely supplanted in the US by high fructose corn syrup, which is less expensive because of corn subsidies and sugar tariffs. [ citation needed ]
- Molasses: used as a sweetener and a syrup accompanying other foods, such as cheese or cookies
- Jaggery: a solidified molasses, known as gur or gud or gul in India, is traditionally produced by evaporating juice to make a thick sludge, and then cooling and molding it in buckets. Modern production partially freeze dries the juice to reduce caramelization and lighten its color. It is used as sweetener in cooking traditional entrees, sweets and desserts.
- Falernum: a sweet, and lightly Alcoholic Drink made from sugarcane juice
- Cachaça : the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil; a liquor made of the distillation of sugarcane juice.
- Rum: is a liquor made from sugarcane products, typically molasses but sometimes also cane juice. It is most commonly produced in the Caribbean and environs.
- Basi: is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane juice produced in the Philippines and Guyana.
- Panela : solid pieces of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice; a food staple in Colombia and other countries in South and Central America
- Rapadura : a sweet flour that is one of the simplest refinings of sugarcane juice, common in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela (where it is known as papelón ) and the Caribbean.
- Rock candy: crystallized cane juice
- Gâteau de Sirop
Palm sugar was originally made from the sap of the Palmyra palm , the date palm or the sugar date palm . Now it is also made from the sap of the Arenga pinnata (sugar palm) and the nipa palm , and may therefore also be sold as "arenga sugar". Palm sugar is often labelled under various other names reflecting the several different species of palm utilised and its wide production area across Africa and Asia. Palm sugar is produced by tapping the sap from the inflorescence of the tree and boiling it down to produce a syrup, which is then sold as is, or allowed to crystallize into various shapes and sizes. In some instances the tree itself is tapped rather than the flowering spikes, but this is an isolated production method. Often the distinction is made between coconut sugar and palm sugar, but this only reflects the different species from which the sugar is sourced, i.e. coconut sugar is produced in an identical way. [1] Thailand is one place where the distinction is made and the difference is due to palm sugar being produced there from the tree trunk of the sugar palm, whilst coconut sugar is tapped from the inflorescences of the coconut palm. The differences are semantic, as all the sugars under their various names are still produced from the sucrose rich sap of a palm species.