Is Adding Brown Sugar in Coffee a Good Idea?

There are plenty of benefits of adding brown sugar in coffee that you cannot even imagine. By adding it to your coffee, will taste different than with your regular white sugar. Brown sugar comprises molasses. At any rate, it is because of molasses that provides brown and raw sugar that fantastic flavor. Many people like its unique flavor, and some go for its benefits. But believe whatever the reason; brown sugar is gaining huge fame day by day!

What is brown sugar?

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product having a unique brown color because of the presence of molasses. It may be unrefined or partially refined soft sugar-containing sugar crystals having certain residual molasses content (natural brown sugar). It is also prepared by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar which is known as commercial brown sugar.

How It Is Made

Brown sugar is boiled, direct from low-purity syrups received during the refining process, or blended by coating granulated sugar crystals and pure syrup. Following are the methods of the processing;

Boiling Soft Sugar Method

Boiled sugars are subdivided into the agglomerated grain and single-crystal styles.

Agglomerated Crystal Styles

Agglomerated style brown sugar is composed of fine sugar crystals that are permitted to fuse in the pan to form stable particles between 500 and 1000 microns.  It forms a final product with a higher surface area that can be purged effectively in a batch centrifugal to make brown sugar consisting of 7 to 11% nonsucrose (Science Direct).

Blended soft sugar method

Brown sugars can also be made by blending selected refinery syrups with granulated sugar continuously. It decreases the load on purification tools and materials like ion exchange and filter presses.

Varieties of Brown Sugar

The quantity of molasses included in the white sugar helps determine what kind of brown sugar is formed;

• Light Brown Sugar

This is the most common kind utilized for baking. Recipes that go for brown sugar without mentioning the type of sugar typically need light brown sugar. Light brown sugar comprises of almost 3.5 % molasses by weight.

• Dark Brown Sugar

Dark brown sugar is about 6.5 % molasses by weight. It is mostly used when an additional rich flavor or color is required.

• Liquid Brown Sugar

Domino Sugar, a famous sugar manufacturer company in the United States, utilized to form a liquid brown sugar product. Though this product is no longer present, plenty of older recipes still involve this ingredient. To create a substitute for liquid brown sugar at home, mix one-part water with three parts light brown sugar. The mixture may have to be heated for some time for the sugar to dissolve fully.

Is brown sugar healthier than white?

Although many think Brown sugar is a better and healthier substitute for white sugar, the two are almost identical. The process of forming brown or white sugar is the same, but the brown color comes from the addition of molasses that are eliminated previously.

Individuals think it a lower-calorie alternative, but the truth is that both brown and white sugar have almost the same calories as 100 grams of brown sugar comprises 370 calories. In contrast, white sugar consists of 390 calories.

Because of the smaller size of brown sugar crystals, there are many more calories in a teaspoon of brown sugar than white sugar. The slight differences between the two sugars will not help anyone lose weight.

Unrefined or “raw” brown sugar is also considered as an alternative. This kind of sugar has its color due to molasses that provide iron, magnesium, and potassium. These minerals are available only in minute amounts, and thinking about the small amount of sugar consumed, they provide no potential benefit for the diet.

Does coffee with brown sugar taste better than with white sugar?

Brown sugar in coffee is not just a sweetener, unlike white sugar. The molasses that you can find in brown sugar offer an intense flavor that mixes very well in coffee. Your coffee will have a complex taste. It also has a vibrant, deep color because of the brown texture of brown sugar.

It is highly recommended for coffee with milk such as Latte, Flat White or Cappuccino.

Alternatives to sugar for your coffee

Below are some alternatives other than brown sugar in coffee:

• Molasses

Molasses is a dense, viscous liquid of dark golden color, because of a sugar processing process. It is an excellent alternative to white sugar. The caloric consumption is lower than that of sugar by about 20-40 %. They are also famous for their remineralizing properties. One hundred grams of product produces over 70% iron.

• Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is also a natural sweetener utilized in North America. It is a sweet liquid that originates from the lymph of two maple varieties like Acer saccharum (sugar maple) or Acer saccharum nigrum (black maple). Maple syrup is high in beneficial substances for your body. It contains plenty of mineral salts like potassium, calcium, and iron, including vitamins and malic acid.

• Honey

Honey is also a common yet principal natural sweetener. It contains fructose, glucose, organic acids, vitamins, and minerals. There are no health benefits of using honey, so you should use it in coffee instead of sugar.