Brown Sugar

Brown sugar is a moist, tan-to-amber crystalline sugar with fine to medium grains. It has a warm caramel aroma, sticky texture, and soft clumps; it dissolves readily and lends deep, rounded sweetness. Common in cookies, quick breads, barbecue rubs, and glazes, it is sold as light or dark varieties and is typically measured packed.

Producers originally made brown sugar by leaving molasses in partially refined cane sugar; modern refineries often blend refined sugar with cane molasses to control color and flavor. It developed around cane-growing regions in South and Southeast Asia and the Caribbean and became a staple in European and North American baking.