Brown sugar, black, or blond raw sugar is sucrose having a characteristic brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is a raw sugar or partially refined sugar crystals composed with a residual content of molasses or produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar.
Brown sugar includes 3.5% (light brown sugar) to 6.5% (dark brown sugar) molasses. The product is naturally moist due to the hygroscopic nature of the molasses, and can be processed into more manageable variants in industrial processes. The addition of dyes and other chemicals may be permitted in some jurisdictions or industrial processes.
The particle size varies, but generally less than the white granulated sugar. Variants for industrial use (such as cakes) can be based on caster sugar which has crystals of approximately 0.35 mm.
