There are many kinds of cane sugar and syrup, differing in their purity and degree of refinement. The least pure is blackstrap molasses (from the Dutch word ‘stroop’, meaning syrup) or black treacle, which is a residue from cane refining. Next is ‘raw’ dark brown sugar. The darkest of ordinary western sugars is Barbados or muscovado. (This was originally made in Barbados but may now come from elsewhere. The name muscovado comes from the Spanish más acabado (more finished), because it has been separated from the molasses with which it was originally mixed.) The crudest sugar of all brown sugars is known as foot sugar or foots because in early processes it settled at the bottom of the barrel.
