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What is Sucanat™?

The process for making Sucanat™ starts out like that used for other forms of cane sugar, with the harvesting of the sugar canes. The canes are cut, leaving the roots behind so that they will sprout new canes in the coming year, and then they are crushed in a mangler which extracts their naturally sweet juice...

In the case of Sucanat™, however, the sugar cane juice is simply heated and then allowed to cool, forming granular crystals of what is basically dried sugar cane juice. The Sucanat™ retains the molasses, creating a very distinctive and quite strong flavor, along with other impurities which may be present in the cane. Unlike more refined sugar, Sucanat™ is grainy, rather than blocky…

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 Sucanat, Soo-ka-nat

We all know that white sugar is like the devil. It's got zero nutritional value and rots our teeth. It also makes us feel crappy when we eat it because it makes our blood sugar level spike up and then come crashing down. Imagine what it does to our poor plants. Have you heard of Sucanat? It stands for Sugar Cane Natural. It's sugar in its most natural form - pure cane juice with only the water removed. This process preserves all the vitamin-filled molasses.

Articles of Interest

Evaporated Cane Juice: Sugar In Disguise?

If you're one of those people who vigilantly checks the ingredient list of the things you buy at the grocery store, you may have already seen this: Some food products now contain something called "evaporated cane juice." It can be found in yogurt, fruit juices and lemonades. So what exactly is evaporated cane juice?

Ingredient Spotlight: Sucanat

Sucanat, also known as Rapadura, is a whole, unrefined cane sugar made by crushing sugar cane, extracting the juice, heating it, and dehydrating it into granules. It is still sugar, but many consider Sucanat healthier because it contains less sucrose and retains the natural molasses and trace nutrients like iron, calcium, potassium, and B vitamins. (Sucanat is also preferred by many vegetarians and vegans because no bone char is used in processing.)

Sucanat Versus White Sugar

Sucanat is dried cane juice that still has vitamins and minerals in it, unlike processed, white sugar.

Sucanat Vs. Sugar: SPICEography Showdown

Sucanat is evaporated cane juice, which means that it is unprocessed. The lack of processing is the main way in which it is different from sugars like brown sugar or white refined sugar, which are almost always processed to some extent.

Sucanat: A Modern Raw Sugar

Most forms of cane sugar are relatively old, with centuries of cultural tradition behind them. For example, beet sugar has its origin in the Napoleonic wars. The refined sugar with which most of us are familiar is deeply interwoven in Caribbean culture and slave trade’s long legacy.

Unrefined Dehydrated Whole Cane Sugar (Sucanat, Rapadura, Panela And Muscovado)

Unrefined sugars can be SO confusing – sucanat, rapadura, panela, and muscovado. Not only are they unfamiliar in the culture, tough to find at your local grocery store, and a maze of nutritional myths. When you have 3-4 names for basically the same product it can be difficult to find an answer to the question, “Are unrefined sugars healthier than white sugar?”

What Is Sucanat?

Sucanat is an unrefined, natural cane sugar made from minimally processed sugar cane juice (its name is an abbreviation for sucre de canne naturel, meaning “natural sugar cane”). It has a deep molasses-like flavor and a tannish-brown color.

Why Sucanat? - A Natural Sweetener

Sucanat is a whole form of unrefined cane sugar. The name sucanat is derived from sugar cane natural. It is prepared by heating cane sugar into a syrup that is then cooled and the remainder is dried granules that resemble dark brown grains. While traditional white sugar is created by refining sugar by stripping it of its molasses content, sucanat retains the natural molasses.