What’s the Difference Between Sugar in the Raw and Regular Sugar?

The many types of sugar available today can be confusing, to say the least. Some are different colors, grades, and textures than others, and there are so many different naming indicators to keep track of: cane sugar and beet sugar, white sugar and brown sugar, turbinado sugar and demerara sugar…the list goes on and on.

A specific brand of sugar that so many have become familiar with is Sugar in the Raw. But like many, you might be confused about what this product actually is – and whether it’s better, worse, or different at all from “regular sugar” (aka refined white sugar, or table sugar).

What’s the real difference between Sugar in the Raw and regular sugar? It all comes down to the specific stages of refined sugar processing, and the amount of molasses present in the sugar crystals. 

What is Sugar in the Raw?

First, let’s answer the question: what exactly is Sugar in the Raw? It’s turbinado cane sugar, which is considered a type of raw sugar. But this can be a little misleading, because raw sugar does not necessarily mean raw, and it also doesn’t mean natural, unprocessed, or unrefined – all words you might be used to hearing in connection with raw sugar. 

Sourced from Colombia and Mauritius, Sugar in the Raw is golden brown in color, with sugar crystals that are thick and crunchy. It has a richer molasses flavor to it, which the brand refers to as all-natural because some of the sugar’s original molasses content is retained during processing (rather than being bleached or removed, which we’ll get into more below).

However, raw sugar, including the turbinado sugar that Sugar in the Raw produces, is still processed and refined to a certain degree – it’s just not quite as processed or refined as white sugar. 

The steps of refined sugar

There are several steps involved in processing sugar to ultimately produce refined white sugar – what we know of as table sugar. Think of raw sugar as one stage before white sugar in the grand scheme of sugar processing. 

All sugar starts out as a form of sugary juice that’s extracted from either a sugar beet or sugarcane plant. While the extraction method is slightly different depending on the crop, once the liquid is obtained the processing is very similar from that point on. The molasses (a thick, sugary, brown syrup that’s naturally found in the sugar juice) is separated, and the remaining sugar is crystalized through a series of filtration, evaporation, and centrifugation processes.  

At this point, the sugar crystals that result from the process, which still contain a small amount of the original molasses content (usually around 2%) are considered raw sugar or turbinado sugar. The crystals are golden brown in color, and have a subtle molasses flavor to them.

To become refined white sugar, these crystals are further processed from this stage through more washing, filtering, purifying, and refining (sometimes involving bone char or activated charcoal to bleach the color). Any impurities are removed, along with any remaining amount of molasses, to create the fine white granules we know as regular sugar.

So, to sum up: Sugar in the Raw – also known as turbinado sugar or raw sugar – goes through a process of single crystallization, where small amounts of the molasses from the cane juice are left in the sugar crystals. Regular sugar – also known as refined white sugar or table sugar – goes through several series of crystallization processes, ultimately removing any remaining molasses and becoming more refined.

Here’s what sugar processing involves, step by step, so you can see where raw sugar becomes raw sugar, and how regular sugar is different.

Sugar in the Raw	Regular Sugar
Sugar crop is harvested and juice is extracted from plant	Sugar crop is harvested and juice is extracted from plant
Extracted juice is filtered, evaporated, filtered, and boiled to remove molasses	Extracted juice is filtered, evaporated, filtered, and boiled to remove molasses
Sugar is crystallized by centrifugation and evaporated to dry the crystals	Sugar is crystallized by centrifugation and evaporated to dry the crystals
	Crystals are sent to refinery where they are washed, filtered, and bleached; final impurities and all molasses is removed, and sugar is further processed into small granules

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