What is Muscuvado Sugar?

If you’re a 1970s or 80s baby, you’re probably familiar with Muscuvado sugar, right? If you’re not, it’s the alternative sugar that most mothers prefer because of its honey-like taste, brown color and rough texture. It’s completely the opposite of the conventional white sugar that you always buy in the market. Well, good thing this product is being manufactured up until today and even better, Muscuvado sugar products are even shipped outside the country. But what really is a Muscuvado sugar?

This product was first introduced by the Alter Trade group in 1980s when the prices of sugar plummeted. The effect was drastic as the world market was affected and even worse, workers and their families were brought to poverty. Muscuvado sugar, unlike the white sugar, is a pure, whole and unrefined. That’s why if you will notice, brown sugar is more rough and has bigger grains. It’s also a centrifugal cane sugar that makes it retain all the natural minerals a sugarcane has. Well, that’s just a more complicated way of saying that a Muscuvado sugar is healthier than a white sugar.

If you will compare Muscuvado and white sugar’s taste, the latter is plain sweet. While the brown sugar has sweetness that tastes like honey. Some people prefer putting brown sugar into their coffee because it adds more flavor to the hot drink. Just so you still don’t know, Alter Trade’s brown sugar comes in three types namely: fine powder, rocks and flakes. Apparently, the names of the sugar types will already give you a hint what texture the Mascuvado variants have.

The main ingredient, organic sugarcane, comes from various cities in Negros Occidental. Some are being shipped from Bago, Talisay, La Castellana and La Coma. Lime, which is considered as a secondary ingredient, is being shipped from Pontevedra. The sugarcanes are then delivered to the mill and from there, the canes are processed for about 48 hours. The process consists of pressing the sugarcanes to extract the natural sweet juice. After that, the juice is being cooked for a span of time and then added with other ingredients like lime of coconut. Then, when the processed juice is dried up, it’s broken down to small pieces. Because Muscuvado sugar is only processed for a short span of time, the nutrients it has is retained.

Muscuvado sugar is not good for the health but knowing that this product is more natural and less processed than refined sugar, brown sugar is still advisable to use than the white one.