Brown Sugar: What It Is, Types, Molasses, Taste, and Uses
Author: Ukrainian Psychological Hub · Published: September 29, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Brown sugar is a sucrose-rich sweetener with molasses-related color, aroma, moisture, and flavor. In the form most familiar in U.S. kitchens, it is a soft, packable sugar sold mainly as light brown or dark brown sugar. The defining culinary difference from ordinary white granulated sugar is the molasses character: it changes more than color, adding aroma, moisture, mild acidity, and a different texture.
Official standards show why a simple definition matters. The USDA Commercial Item Description for white and brown sugar recognizes light and dark brown styles and describes both as soft-textured sugars with sweet molasses odor and flavor. The Codex Standard for Sugars defines soft brown sugar as a fine-grain, purified, moist sugar ranging from light to dark brown, with sucrose plus invert sugar making up at least 88% by mass. Brown sugar is therefore still overwhelmingly sugar; its molasses-related fraction is what gives the ingredient its distinctive sensory and functional properties.
This article owns the mainstream ingredient question: what brown sugar is, how it is made, what light and dark brown sugar mean, how molasses changes taste and texture, how brown sugar behaves in cooking and baking, how to store it, and what the evidence says about health and perception. For the wider taxonomy, see Types of Sugar: White, Brown, Cane, Raw, and Other Sugars.
Quick answer: what is brown sugar?
Brown sugar is a moist, brown sucrose product whose color and flavor come from molasses-associated material. A common modern U.S. production route starts with refined granulated sugar and adds cane molasses back to the crystals; other brown-sugar products retain more of the original molasses during processing. Light brown sugar has a milder molasses profile, while dark brown sugar has a deeper color and more assertive molasses flavor. Exact formulas vary by manufacturer, so there is no single universal molasses percentage that defines every product sold as brown sugar.
Brown sugar is used in cookies, cakes, quick breads, gingerbread, sauces, glazes, barbecue preparations, oatmeal, crumbles, marinades, beverages, and many other foods. Its moisture and molasses compounds can make a recipe darker, more aromatic, more moist, more chewy, or more strongly flavored than the same recipe made only with dry white granulated sugar. Those effects depend on the full recipe, especially the fat, flour, water, eggs, leavening, temperature, and mixing method.
Nutritionally, brown sugar remains a concentrated caloric sweetener. When it is added to foods or drinks as a sweetener, it belongs within the U.S. FDA Added Sugars framework. The presence of molasses does not turn an ordinary serving of brown sugar into a nutritionally meaningful source of minerals or create an established health advantage over white sugar.
What brown sugar is made of
The dominant chemical component of brown sugar is sucrose, the same disaccharide that dominates ordinary table sugar. What distinguishes soft brown sugar is the molasses-related fraction around the crystals. That fraction contributes water, invert sugars, minerals, organic compounds, pigments, acids, and volatile aroma compounds in amounts that vary with the product and processing method.
The exact composition is governed by standards and commercial specifications rather than by one universal kitchen formula. The USDA specification for brown sugar sets requirements for sucrose, moisture, ash, sensory characteristics, and other quality factors. Codex likewise defines soft brown sugar as a purified moist sugar and specifies limits for invert sugar, ash, and loss on drying. These standards are useful because they separate the product category from internet shorthand such as “white sugar with exactly X percent molasses,” which may describe a particular formulation without defining every brown sugar sold worldwide.
Sucrose
Sucrose provides most of brown sugar’s sweetness and mass. It is a disaccharide made of glucose and fructose units chemically bonded together. Once sucrose dissolves in a food or beverage, the original crystal color is no longer the main determinant of sweetness; concentration, temperature, aroma, texture, and the surrounding food matrix also influence what people perceive.
Molasses
Molasses is the concentrated syrup associated with sugar crystallization and refining. In brown sugar, it provides the characteristic brown color and much of the aroma, flavor, moisture, and acidity. The American Society of Baking describes commercial brown sugar as granulated cane sugar with added molasses and identifies moisture retention, sweetening, color, flavor, and baking functionality as important effects.
Molasses is not simply a brown dye. Its mixture of non-sucrose compounds creates sensory complexity. Research on molasses-rich and non-centrifugal brown cane sugars has identified aroma-active compounds associated with caramel-like, sweet, fruity, roasted, and other notes. Those research products are not identical to every supermarket soft brown sugar, but the chemistry demonstrates why adding or retaining more molasses-related material can change perceived flavor rather than merely changing appearance.
Moisture
Soft brown sugar contains more moisture than dry white granulated sugar. That is why it feels damp, clumps under pressure, can be packed into a measuring cup, and hardens when it loses water during storage. Moisture is also one reason brown sugar can change the texture of baked goods and sauces.
How brown sugar is made
There are two broad manufacturing routes. In one, sugar is only partially refined so some molasses-associated material remains with the crystals. In another, sugar is refined further and molasses is deliberately added back to purified crystals. The second route is common for the soft light and dark brown sugar familiar in U.S. grocery stores. Illinois Extension explains this common retail process as white sugar with molasses added back, while the American Society of Baking describes a production sequence that ends with molasses being added to sugar crystals.
The source of the sucrose and the source of the flavoring molasses need not be treated as the same question. The USDA brown-sugar specification permits sugar produced from sugar cane or sugar beets. In common U.S. soft brown sugar, cane molasses is widely used for the molasses component. Because production practices and product names vary internationally, a specific package ingredient list and manufacturer specification are more reliable than assuming every brown-colored sugar was made by the same route.
If you want the upstream source story, Cane Sugar: What It Is, How It Is Made, Taste, and Uses covers cane-derived sugar, while Refined Sugar: What It Is and How Refining Changes Sugar explains what refining removes, standardizes, and changes.
Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar
Light brown and dark brown sugar are the two standard soft brown sugars most American recipes mean when they simply say “brown sugar.” The difference is primarily molasses intensity. The USDA recognizes light and dark as separate styles: light brown sugar should have a light-to-medium golden-brown color and mild sweet molasses odor and flavor, while dark brown sugar has a darker brown color and a more pronounced sweet molasses odor and flavor.
Light brown sugar
Light brown sugar is the milder everyday form. It brings brown-sugar moisture, a gentle molasses aroma, and caramel-like depth without making molasses the dominant flavor. It is commonly used in chocolate-chip cookies, blondies, cakes, muffins, banana bread, streusel, oatmeal, sauces, and glazes.
Dark brown sugar
Dark brown sugar carries more intense molasses character. It is especially useful when a recipe benefits from deeper color and a stronger flavor profile, such as gingerbread, spice cakes, baked beans, barbecue sauces, marinades, darker cookies, and robust glazes.
Light and dark brown sugar can often substitute for one another in forgiving recipes, but the swap is not sensorially invisible. Dark brown sugar generally makes the result darker and more molasses-forward. In recipes whose flavor or leavening is tightly calibrated, the difference can matter more. The dedicated light-versus-dark comparison is a separate search intent; here the practical rule is simply to treat them as close relatives rather than identical ingredients.
Brown sugar is not the same as raw sugar, turbinado, demerara, or muscovado
Brown color is a poor classification system for sugar. Turbinado, demerara, muscovado, raw cane sugar, non-centrifugal cane sugar, and ordinary soft brown sugar can all look brown, yet they differ in crystal size, moisture, processing, flavor intensity, and culinary behavior.
Codex describes raw cane sugar as partially purified sucrose crystallized from partially purified cane juice, with the crystals covered by a film of cane molasses. That is a different processing identity from ordinary soft brown sugar. Our Raw Sugar: What It Is, Types, Taste, and Uses guide explains why coarse raw-style sugars are generally drier and less packable than standard soft brown sugar. For the direct side-by-side comparison of processing, crystal texture, molasses character, baking, and substitution, see Raw Sugar vs Brown Sugar: Processing, Taste, and Uses.
Muscovado is typically darker, wetter, and more strongly molasses-forward than ordinary supermarket light brown sugar. Turbinado and demerara are typically coarser and drier, with large crystals that contribute crunch when used as toppings. These ingredients may substitute for brown sugar in selected recipes, but they are not universal one-for-one sensory or functional equivalents. For the direct muscovado-versus-brown-sugar comparison, see Muscovado vs Brown Sugar: Molasses, Taste, and Uses.
What does brown sugar taste like?
Brown sugar tastes sweet first because sucrose dominates the product. Molasses adds the secondary flavor system: caramel-like, toffee-like, roasted, fruity, earthy, mineral, bittersweet, or slightly smoky impressions can appear depending on the molasses, processing, concentration, and food matrix. Light brown sugar usually tastes cleaner and milder; dark brown sugar usually tastes deeper and more molasses-forward.
One useful piece of mechanistic evidence comes from a Food Chemistry study of aroma-active compounds in brown non-centrifugal cane sugar. Researchers identified dozens of aroma-active compounds and found that several congruent aromas could increase the perceived sweetness of a sugar solution. The tested product was not identical to ordinary U.S. soft brown sugar, so the study should not be read as a formula for every bag on a supermarket shelf. It does show that aroma can make a sugar taste sweeter or richer without changing sucrose concentration.
A 2025 Foods study of processed brown sugar likewise found that changing the proportion of non-centrifugal cane sugar, raw sugar, and molasses changed color, volatile compounds, retronasal aroma, roasted notes, richness, acidity, and aftertaste. Again, the manufacturing system differs from common soft brown sugar, but the direction is important: brown-sugar flavor is a product of real chemical and sensory differences, not simply a visual illusion.
Why brown sugar feels different: texture, moisture, and crystal behavior
Soft brown sugar is compressible. When you squeeze it, moist crystals stick together and hold the shape of the pressure. That property is why traditional recipes often ask for “packed” brown sugar. Volume measurement therefore depends on how firmly the sugar is packed, while weight measurement avoids much of that variability.
The surface molasses and moisture also change dissolution and mouthfeel. Dry white granulated sugar tends to pour freely; soft brown sugar tends to clump. In a beverage, both eventually dissolve, but brown sugar contributes additional aroma and color. In doughs and batters, its moisture and acidity participate in a much more complex system involving fat, water, proteins, starches, and leavening agents.
These physical differences are the reason a substitution that preserves sweetness can still change a recipe. The sugar is doing structural work as well as providing sweet taste.
What brown sugar does in baking
Brown sugar can influence flavor, browning, moisture retention, spread, tenderness, chewiness, and leavening. The direction and size of each effect depend on the recipe. The American Society of Baking highlights sweetening, moisture retention, color development, and the acidity contributed by molasses as central baking functions.
Cookies
Brown sugar is common in chewy or soft cookies because it introduces moisture and molasses-derived flavor. It can also alter how a dough spreads and browns. A cookie made with more brown sugar may be darker, more aromatic, and softer or chewier than a version using only white granulated sugar, although fat type, flour ratio, mixing method, baking time, and oven temperature can easily outweigh the sugar choice.
Cakes, muffins, and quick breads
In cakes and quick breads, brown sugar contributes color and flavor while helping create a moist impression. It works especially naturally with bananas, apples, pumpkin, dates, warm spices, chocolate, nuts, and whole-grain flavors because the molasses notes are congruent with roasted, fruity, and spice aromas.
Gingerbread and spice baking
Dark brown sugar is a natural fit for gingerbread, spice cakes, and molasses-forward desserts because the stronger aroma remains noticeable even beside cinnamon, ginger, clove, cocoa, and deeply browned crusts.
Leavening and acidity
Molasses contributes acidity. In formulas containing baking soda, that acidity can participate in acid-base reactions that release carbon dioxide. The practical effect is recipe-specific: changing from one sugar to another can alter the balance of acidity, spread, color, and rise, so precision baking is better served by following the recipe’s specified sugar unless you intend to reformulate.
What brown sugar does in cooking
Brown sugar is equally useful outside baking. It dissolves into sauces, glazes, marinades, braising liquids, oatmeal, hot cereals, beverages, chutneys, and barbecue preparations. Its sweetness balances sour, salty, bitter, spicy, and roasted components, while its molasses aroma adds depth that plain sucrose may not provide.
In glazes and sauces, the sugar contributes dissolved solids, sweetness, color development, and viscosity as water evaporates. In dry rubs, it contributes sweetness and surface browning but can burn under intense heat, so cooking method and temperature matter. In coffee or tea, it changes the aromatic profile as well as sweetness; the drink can seem more caramel-like or robust because flavor is a multisensory combination of taste and smell.
Common uses for brown sugar
Brown sugar is especially effective where sweetness and flavor depth are both desired. Typical uses include cookies and bars, cakes and muffins, banana bread and quick breads, gingerbread, crumbles and streusels, oatmeal and porridge, baked fruit, sauces and glazes, baked beans, barbecue sauce, marinades and spice rubs, chutneys, coffee and tea, and homemade syrups.
The best choice between light and dark depends on how prominent you want the molasses character to be. Use light when you want a gentle background note. Use dark when the molasses flavor is part of the identity of the dish.
Can you substitute brown sugar for white granulated sugar?
Sometimes, but substitution is not equivalence. Brown sugar can replace white granulated sugar in many forgiving cookies, cakes, sauces, and savory preparations, especially when the darker color and molasses flavor are welcome. The result may still differ in moisture, spread, tenderness, chewiness, browning, acidity, and aroma.
In recipes that depend on dry crystals, a clean white color, neutral flavor, precise creaming, candy temperatures, or a particular crystallization behavior, the swap can be more disruptive. Our Granulated Sugar: What It Is, Uses, Texture, and Substitutes guide explains substitution by function rather than by sweetness alone.
Light and dark brown sugar are usually closer substitutes for one another than brown and white sugar are. Even then, use the sugar the recipe specifies when you care about reproducing the intended flavor exactly.
For the full side-by-side comparison of taste, baking behavior, nutrition, substitution, and everyday uses, see Brown Sugar vs White Sugar: Taste, Baking, Nutrition, and Uses.
Can you make brown sugar from white sugar and molasses?
Yes. Mixing granulated sugar with molasses recreates the central sensory idea of common commercial soft brown sugar and is a practical emergency substitute. The exact ratio used in home formulas varies, and commercial products are manufactured to their own moisture, color, particle-size, and composition specifications. For that reason, a homemade mixture can work very well without being chemically identical to every branded brown sugar.
This is one reason percentage claims should be treated carefully. Many baking references quote characteristic molasses levels for light and dark brown sugar, but those values describe common formulations rather than a universal legal definition for every market.
Why brown sugar hardens
Brown sugar hardens mainly because it loses moisture. As water leaves the molasses-coated crystal surfaces, the sugar particles bind into a rigid mass. Hardening is a quality and handling problem more than a change in the identity of the sucrose.
The practical prevention is simple: minimize moisture exchange with the environment. Store brown sugar in a tightly closed, moisture-resistant container or a well-sealed bag. Penn State Extension recommends tight storage and describes controlled rehydration methods for hardened brown sugar. If you soften it with bread, fruit, or another moist item, remove that item before it spoils and avoid introducing contamination.
Does brown sugar expire?
Dry sugars are unusually shelf-stable ingredients, but storage conditions still matter. Brown sugar can harden, absorb odors, become wet, or be contaminated by insects, moldy foreign material, or pantry debris. A hard block by itself is usually a moisture-management problem; visible mold, off odors, pests, or contamination are reasons to discard the product. For packaged sugar, follow the manufacturer’s storage and quality guidance rather than treating a general shelf-life number as universal.
Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar?
Brown sugar has small compositional differences because molasses contributes water, minerals, and other compounds, but the product remains predominantly sugar. The USDA specification and Codex standard both define brown sugar as a sugar-dominant product. Trace differences in minerals do not establish a meaningful health advantage at ordinary culinary serving sizes.
For U.S. nutrition labeling, the more important distinction is not brown versus white color but whether sugar is added to a food or beverage. The FDA defines Added Sugars around sugars added during processing or preparation, plus certain packaged sweeteners and related categories. Brown sugar used to sweeten cookies, cereal, coffee, sauces, or other foods therefore functions as added sugar in the relevant nutrition context.
The detailed nutrition intent belongs to Sugar Nutrition Facts: Calories, Carbohydrates, and Added Sugars. The present ingredient article keeps the health conclusion narrow: choose brown sugar for flavor, texture, and culinary function, not because brown color itself proves superior nutrition.
Sensory psychology: why brown sugar can seem richer before you taste it
Brown sugar is a useful example of how food perception combines chemistry with expectation. Its molasses really does change aroma, color, moisture, and flavor. At the same time, visual and semantic cues can alter what a person expects to taste before the sugar reaches the tongue.
Color creates expectations
Food color is a predictive cue. A major review by Shankar, Levitan, and Spence concluded that color–flavor interactions depend partly on expectations learned from prior experience and context. Brown or amber food can therefore prime expectations of caramel, molasses, toast, roast, or richness when those associations are familiar to the eater.
That does not mean brown sugar’s flavor is imaginary. Its molasses supplies genuine aroma compounds. The psychological point is that the visual cue and the chemical cue can point in the same direction, making the experience feel coherent and sometimes intensifying the reported flavor.
Aroma changes perceived sweetness
Sweetness is not experienced in isolation from smell. A review of intrinsic and extrinsic sensory factors in sweetness perception found that aroma, color, texture, and contextual cues can alter sweetness judgments. Congruent aromas can enhance perceived sweetness even when the amount of sugar is unchanged. Brown sugar’s caramel-like and molasses-like aromas can therefore contribute to a richer sweet impression without requiring the sucrose concentration itself to be higher.
Texture changes the experience
Texture affects how food is handled in the mouth, how quickly components dissolve, and how aromas are released. Soft, moist brown sugar feels different from coarse dry crystals before it is dissolved; in baked foods, it also changes the physical food matrix. That makes the sensory experience a combination of sweetness, aroma, texture, temperature, and learned expectation.
Naturalness, brown color, and the health halo
Brown foods are often interpreted as less processed or more natural, especially when packaging uses words such as raw, traditional, cane, organic, artisanal, or unrefined. Consumer research shows that naturalness is a powerful food value. A systematic review by Román, Sánchez-Siles, and Siegrist synthesized 72 studies across 32 countries and found that perceived naturalness matters strongly to many consumers, with judgments drawing on origin, production, and final-product characteristics.
More recent experimental evidence shows how that cue can spill over into health judgments. In a 2025 study, Radaelli and colleagues found that “natural” claims generally increased perceived naturalness and healthiness among Swiss consumers, even though the objective products varied. This study was not about brown sugar specifically, so it does not prove that every consumer sees brown sugar as healthier. It supports a plausible mechanism: natural-looking color and naturalness language can create a health halo that goes beyond the product’s actual nutrient profile.
For brown sugar, the practical implication is straightforward. Color, molasses aroma, coarse packaging imagery, and words implying less processing can legitimately describe sensory or production differences, but they should not be used as shortcuts for nutritional superiority. Ingredient identity, amount consumed, and overall dietary context remain separate questions.
Does darker brown sugar taste sweeter?
Not necessarily. Darker brown sugar usually has a stronger molasses profile, so it can taste richer or more aromatic. Perceived sweetness, however, is not a direct color meter. Sucrose concentration, aroma congruency, temperature, texture, adaptation, and the other ingredients in the food all matter.
Research on brown cane sugars shows that aroma-active compounds can enhance sweetness perception, while broader sensory research shows that color and aroma can alter sweetness judgments. These findings explain why two sugars with similar total sweetness chemistry can feel different. They do not justify a universal rule that darker sugar is sweeter.
Does brown sugar taste like caramel?
Caramel-like is a useful sensory descriptor, but brown sugar is not simply caramelized white sugar. Caramelization is a heat-driven set of reactions that occurs when sugars are heated sufficiently. Brown sugar’s characteristic packaged aroma comes mainly from molasses-related compounds and from the processing history of those materials. In cooked foods, additional caramelization and Maillard reactions can create new flavor compounds on top of the original brown-sugar aroma.
The distinction matters because “caramel flavor” in ordinary food language can describe a sensory resemblance without implying that the ingredient itself was produced by caramelizing sucrose.
Brown sugar and the evidence: what is established, what is product-dependent, and what remains an inference
Established
Brown sugar is a sucrose-dominant, moist sugar product with molasses-related color and flavor. Light and dark styles are recognized in U.S. commercial specifications. Molasses changes color, aroma, moisture, acidity, and culinary behavior. Brown sugar used as a sweetener belongs within added-sugar concepts. Color and aroma can influence flavor and sweetness perception in foods.
Well supported but product-dependent
Dark brown sugar generally has a stronger molasses profile than light brown sugar. Brown sugar can increase moisture retention and change color, flavor, browning, texture, and leavening in baked foods. The size of those effects depends on the brand, recipe, processing conditions, and comparison sugar.
Plausible interpretation
Brown color, “raw” imagery, cane provenance, and naturalness language can make some consumers expect richer flavor or greater healthfulness. General consumer-psychology research strongly supports naturalness and color-expectation mechanisms, but direct experiments isolating the health halo of ordinary brown sugar are limited. The mechanism is plausible; the product-specific effect should not be exaggerated.
Claims that the evidence does not support
Brown sugar is not automatically raw, unrefined, organic, healthier, or nutritionally superior because it is brown. Darker color does not prove greater sweetness. A preference for brown sugar does not reveal a personality type or a clinical condition. Enjoyment of sweet foods is ordinary food behavior and should not be pathologized.
Common brown sugar myths
Myth: brown sugar is just white sugar dyed brown
Brown sugar’s color is tied to molasses-associated material, not ordinary food coloring. Molasses changes aroma, moisture, acidity, and flavor as well as color.
Myth: all brown sugar is unrefined
Common soft brown sugar can be made by adding molasses back to refined sugar. Other brown sugars retain more original molasses during processing. Brown color alone does not reveal the refining history.
Myth: dark brown sugar is always healthier
Dark brown sugar can contain more molasses character, but stronger flavor does not establish a meaningful health advantage. It remains a concentrated sugar ingredient.
Myth: raw sugar and brown sugar are interchangeable
Raw-style sugars such as turbinado and demerara are generally coarser and drier than soft brown sugar. They may work in selected recipes, but they do not reproduce the same moisture, packing behavior, or texture.
Myth: brown sugar always makes baked goods chewy
Brown sugar can contribute to chewiness and moisture retention, especially in cookies, but texture emerges from the whole formula. Flour, fat, eggs, water, mixing, leavening, temperature, and bake time all contribute.
Frequently asked questions
What is brown sugar made of?
Brown sugar is mainly sucrose plus molasses-associated material and moisture. In a common U.S. manufacturing method, molasses is added back to refined sugar crystals. Other brown sugars retain more molasses during processing.
Is brown sugar just white sugar with molasses?
That is a common and accurate description of modern soft brown sugar, especially in the U.S., but it is not the only production route used for every brown sugar worldwide. Some brown sugars are produced with more residual molasses retained during processing.
What is the difference between light and dark brown sugar?
Dark brown sugar has a deeper color and stronger molasses flavor; light brown sugar is milder. They are often interchangeable in forgiving recipes, but the finished flavor and color will change.
Does brown sugar contain molasses?
Common soft brown sugar gets its characteristic brown color, aroma, and moisture from molasses-associated material. In many commercial U.S. products, cane molasses is added to refined crystals.
Is brown sugar raw sugar?
No. Brown sugar and raw sugar are separate product categories. Raw-style sugars such as turbinado and demerara are usually drier and coarser; soft brown sugar is generally finer, moister, and more packable.
Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar?
No substantial health advantage is established for ordinary brown sugar. Molasses adds trace compounds, but brown sugar remains predominantly sugar and counts as added sugar when used as a sweetener.
Can I use brown sugar instead of white sugar?
Often, but expect changes in color, flavor, moisture, acidity, and texture. The substitution works best in forgiving recipes where molasses flavor is welcome and least predictably in precision confectionery or formulas that depend on dry white crystals.
Why do recipes say to pack brown sugar?
Soft brown sugar contains air spaces and clumps because of its moisture. Packing compresses the crystals so a volume measure contains a more consistent amount. Weighing the sugar is more precise.
Why does brown sugar become hard?
It hardens when it loses moisture and the crystals bind into a solid mass. Airtight storage slows that process; controlled rehydration can soften hardened sugar.
Does brown sugar taste sweeter than white sugar?
Not inherently. It may taste richer because molasses adds aroma and flavor, and congruent aromas can enhance perceived sweetness. Actual sweetness perception depends on concentration and the whole sensory context.
Can I put brown sugar in coffee or tea?
Yes. It sweetens the drink while adding molasses-like aroma and a darker color. Whether that improves the beverage is a sensory preference, not a nutritional advantage.
Is brown sugar always made from cane sugar?
The answer depends on what part of the product you mean. USDA specifications allow brown sugar made from sugar derived from cane or beets, while common U.S. soft brown sugar typically uses cane molasses for its brown-sugar character. Check the package or manufacturer if source matters to you.
Is brown sugar vegan?
Sugar-source and refining practices can matter to some vegan consumers, especially when cane sugar refining uses bone char. Brown sugar made from refined cane sugar can therefore raise the same sourcing question. See Is Sugar Vegan? Cane Sugar, Beet Sugar, and Bone Char Explained for the dedicated sourcing guide.