Sainsburys have started to sell Fairtrade Demerara sugar – with no alternative
Trouble is, it is horrid. Gingery red-coloured sand, crystals way too small, & no proper taste of molasses
For over half a lifetime now I have never used anything but Demerara for normal drinks & cooking. I just acquired the taste. White sugar, with all traces of molasses removed, tastes almost sour
Demerara means sugar with quite large sharp, maybe irregular, crystals & a lovely yellowy golden colour
I have pretty much always known that there are no regulations covering the use of the term Demerara as applied to sugar. I knew there was something (to be avoided) called London Demerara, which was white granulated sugar with molasses added back in, but generally understood that brown sugar sold in this country would have kept its colour because the molasses had not been removed by refining. This does not generally seem to be the case in the rest of the world, particularly in the Americas
Then unrefined started to appear on some sugar labels. I was particularly startled to see that one upmarket pudding I bought in Waitrose claimed unrefined caster sugar as an ingredient – I thought all caster sugar was refined, by definition. Apparently not so – some of the molasses is kept in what is also known as golden caster sugar
It has always seemed odd that you cannot get Demerara sugar which comes from Demerara. Sainsburys used to get theirs from Barbados, but in more recent years it has come from Mauritius. This fairtrade stuff comes from Malawi
So in the Google age I went hunting for yet another set of regulations, which I duly found
The Specified Sugar Products Regulations 2003 SI No. 1563
Sadly, they do not apply to brown sugar at all
So, should I want to complain to Sainsburys it will just have to be on the grounds of personal taste
But first, I will just look out for a source of decent unrefined Demerara sugar which will not involve me compromising my anti-so-called-fair-trade principles either
Trouble is, it is horrid. Gingery red-coloured sand, crystals way too small, & no proper taste of molasses
For over half a lifetime now I have never used anything but Demerara for normal drinks & cooking. I just acquired the taste. White sugar, with all traces of molasses removed, tastes almost sour
Demerara means sugar with quite large sharp, maybe irregular, crystals & a lovely yellowy golden colour
I have pretty much always known that there are no regulations covering the use of the term Demerara as applied to sugar. I knew there was something (to be avoided) called London Demerara, which was white granulated sugar with molasses added back in, but generally understood that brown sugar sold in this country would have kept its colour because the molasses had not been removed by refining. This does not generally seem to be the case in the rest of the world, particularly in the Americas
Then unrefined started to appear on some sugar labels. I was particularly startled to see that one upmarket pudding I bought in Waitrose claimed unrefined caster sugar as an ingredient – I thought all caster sugar was refined, by definition. Apparently not so – some of the molasses is kept in what is also known as golden caster sugar
It has always seemed odd that you cannot get Demerara sugar which comes from Demerara. Sainsburys used to get theirs from Barbados, but in more recent years it has come from Mauritius. This fairtrade stuff comes from Malawi
So in the Google age I went hunting for yet another set of regulations, which I duly found
The Specified Sugar Products Regulations 2003 SI No. 1563
Sadly, they do not apply to brown sugar at all
So, should I want to complain to Sainsburys it will just have to be on the grounds of personal taste
But first, I will just look out for a source of decent unrefined Demerara sugar which will not involve me compromising my anti-so-called-fair-trade principles either
