Demerara & Muscovado Sugar

Demerara, muscovado & turbinado — natural browns

Speciality brown sugars are defined by retained molasses rather than by added colour, and the three main types behave quite differently. Demerara is a large, hard, golden-amber crystal with a light toffee note, which keeps its crunch on top of a baked good rather than dissolving in — the reason it is the standard for crumble toppings and coffee service. Muscovado, sometimes traded as Barbados sugar, is fine, very moist and dark, with a high molasses content that gives a strong treacle flavour and a sticky texture that clumps; it is a baking and sauce ingredient rather than a table sugar. Turbinado sits between them, lighter than demerara with larger crystals than white. All are typically minimally processed from cane juice, with moisture materially higher than refined white and molasses content the defining specification.

Buy these where the sugar's colour, flavour or texture is part of the product: premium bakery, retail speciality packs, coffee and tea service, sauces, marinades, rum and ginger cakes, and any brand selling on natural or unrefined positioning. What matters commercially is being clear about which one you actually want, because the trade uses the names loosely and a “brown sugar” that turns out to be refined white with molasses sprayed back on is a different product entirely — cheaper, uniform, and lacking the texture and character that demerara and muscovado are bought for. Specify the type by name, the crystal size and the moisture. Note also that the higher moisture makes these sugars prone to hardening in storage, so packaging and turnover matter more than they do for refined white. CBIL brokers speciality browns against type, crystal size, moisture, molasses content and colour, on FOB Mauritian, Indian, Brazilian and Caribbean ports, CFR and CIF terms.