Talk:Turbinado sugar

Compared with brown sugar
turbinado sugar is not like a brown sugar. brown sugar has molases in it, turbinado is raw cane sugar. they are not usually used interchangable in recipes
 * I'm not sure how interchangable they are (turbinado seems less moist), but molasses is itself made from sugarcane, so it seems like they should have the same flavors.—Ben FrantzDale 15:01, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Why is Cow Bones mentioned? Please Remove this Comment. In sugar producing countries like Guyana, brown sugar is the name for raw sugar. Turbinado sugar and raw sugar are synonymous in non sugar producing countries. Therefore turbinado sugar, raw sugar and brown sugar are synonymous in sugar producing countries. I expect the poster of this entry is familiar with turbinado being referred to as brown sugar (which it clearly is) and doesn't mean the perversion of white sugar with molasses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.47.208.50 (talk) 21:30, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Merge discussion
Starting a section to discuss the proposed merge. I don't claim to know much about sugar, but from the descriptions under Brown sugar, it sounds like they're essentially two names for the same thing. If that is the case, then I'd support a merge. Thomas Kluyver (talk) 15:22, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't support - I am not entirely sure they are the same. Several websites (Eg. ) list these as separate types. --Mayuresh 19:08, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Based on the discussions below, I am happy to change my vote to a Support --MK 14:35, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Fair enough, but in that case we need to clarify the difference. At present, the article Turbinado says "Turbinado and demerara sugars are the same". Also, for the disambiguation header, I'm not sure that "Not to be confused with Brown sugar" is quite right--I would suggest that it is one type of Brown sugar.Thomas Kluyver (talk) 10:45, 6 January 2010 (UTC)


 * A recent edit tried to distinguish them on the grounds of 'hints' of taste using this source: . The same source says that they are made the same way, used the same way, and both referred to as 'raw sugar' in the US. To me it seems that their similarities outweigh the differences. Please, everyone, bear in mind that a merged article will get more attention, so can be better maintained and carry richer information than two separate ones. Thomas Kluyver (talk) 16:17, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I realize that I got here late, and that this talk page has not been edited for something like a month, but I thought I'd weigh in anyhow. I recently edited the article on demerara sugar - resulting in a misleading and inaccurate article. It's no more misleading than the previous version, and it's better written at least by virtue of saying as much in far fewer words, but the bottom line is that it's far from ideal, and that thought got me reading. My understanding of the granulated-sugar-making process is this -

All varieties of granulated cane sugar consist largely of sucrose gleaned from the juice of the sugar cane plant. The juice is obtained by shredding the stalk of the plant, then reapeatedly soaking the resultant pulp in water and wringing it out again to produce a solution of sugar and molasses in water. This solution is made into a sucrose-supersaturated syrup by heating it to evaporate much of the water and exposing the remaining liquid to a vacuum. At high heat and under low pressure, the water in the solution can contain a far greater volume of dissolved substances than it can at room temperature, under normal pressure. Once the solution is supersaturated, pre-crystalized grains of sugar are added and it is allowed to cool at normal pressure. As it cools, the capacity of the water to contain dissolved solids decreases and the dissolved sucrose comes out of solution, with the result that new sucrose crystals are grown. As the crystals grow they trap molasses, which gives unrefined sugar its brown color. If the supersaturated syrup is allowed to cool in a centrifuge the solution becomes stratified, largely segregating the sucrose and the molasses with the result that the crystals contain much less of it than they otherwise would. The process of supersaturation, stratification and crystalization can be repeated several times with each batch of syrup, ultimately resulting in concentrated molasses and large chunks of light brown sugar. The sugar is granulated by battering after exposing it to a days-long drying process.

Additionally, the syrup can be exposed to various chemical agents at certain steps in the process, some of which bleach impurities, making them colorless, and some of which actually remove impurities, the upshot of which is that the granulated sugar turns out white.

The distinctions between most types of brown-colored sugar seem, to me, to arise more from differences in the extent to which molasses segregation is facilitated in the production of each than actual molasses content - the production of muscovado sugar encourages the entrapment of naturally present molasses and trace solids during the solidification of sucrose crystals, whereas products sold as "light brown sugar" and "dark brown sugar," while not rigidly defined, are made by reintroducing relatively pure molasses to refined white sugar in smaller and larger amounts respectively. With that understanding, turbinado and demerara could be defined as unrefined, granulated sugars produced by desaturation of stratified syrups, which are different only in terms of each other, inasmuch as darker sugars of this kind are called demerara, whereas the lighter sugars are called turbinado, and distinguishing one from the other comes down to a judgement call and/or personal preference. This distinction is supported by the sources I've tapped, such as this, and this, and, I think, lends itself to the combination of the two distinct articles.Stagyar Zil Doggo (talk) 07:14, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

hello, hello, hello... Is there anyobdy out there? Stagyar Zil Doggo (talk) 16:54, 26 April 2010 (UTC)


 * By this discussion, that's two in favour of a merge to one against. Is that enough for consensus? Should we be bold and go ahead with it? If we were to merge the two, where would the resulting article go? (Either of these two names, or a new article such as 'Natural Brown Sugar', or the 'Natural Brown Sugar' section of the Brown Sugar article). Thomas Kluyver (talk) 13:07, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

OK, excellent, I think we've now got consensus, so I'll perform the merge. Since using either of the names is likely to raise the hackles of those who know it by the other name, I'm going to put the content in Natural brown sugar (which is currently a redirect), and set these articles to redirect to it. This can always be changed later if needs be. Thomas Kluyver (talk) 10:25, 27 June 2010 (UTC)