sugary talk

Do you know that Brazil has the largest sugar production in the world?

Sugar comes in different grades just like metals, under something called ICUMSA (International Commission For Uniform Methods Of Sugar Analysis). They classify sugar using its colour, as raw sugar is usually dark in colour while highly refined one is, well, white like sugar.

Unrefined centrifugal sugar is in the range of ICUMSA 400 to 1500, which buyers usually import and refine in their own countries. Then you go down the scale and you have ICUMSA 45, a highly refined sparkling white sugar which is less readily obtainable.

In refining sugar, it undergoes basically the processes of affination, carbonation and boiling. You can find more from the Icumsa 45 website.

Next time you pour the sugar into your coffee, think of the process the grains had gone through =)