Sugar (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁)

Sugar is a crystalline substance, differing from starch by its sweet taste and solubility in cold water. As food, its uses are the same as starch; all starch must be converted into sugar before it can be assimilated.

The principal kinds of sugar are: Cane sugar or sucrose, grape sugar or glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆), milk sugar or lactose (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁), and fruit sugar or levulose (C₆H₁₂O₆).

Cane sugar is obtained from sugar cane beets, and the palm and sugar-maple trees. Sugar cane is a grass supposed to be native to Southern Asia, but now grown throughout the tropics, a large amount coming from Cuba and Louisiana; it is the commonest and sweetest of all, and in all cases the manufacture is essentially the same. The products of manufacture are: Molasses, syrup, brown sugar, loaf, cut, granulated, powdered, and confectioners’ sugar. Brown sugar is cheapest, but is not so pure or sweet as white grades; powdered and confectioners’ sugars are fine grades, pulverized, and, although seeming less sweet to the taste, are equally pure. Confectioners’ sugar when applied to the tongue will dissolve at once; powdered sugar is a little granular.