White Sugars

White sugar is made by refining raw sugar to purify it and to remove the colour. There are a number of different varieties of white sugar, all with varying coarseness of grain. Although all white sugars are equally sweet, the finer the sugar, the faster it dissolves and the sweeter it seems. It's also worth bearing in mind that white sugar tastes sweeter in hot dishes than cool ones. This means that cold recipes such as ice cream will require more sugar than hot puddings.

Granulated sugar has a grain size about 0.5 mm, and is most often used at the table or for decorating biscuits and other desserts. Finer grades are made by sieving the granulated sugar to produce sugars such as caster (or castor) sugar (0.35 mm), which is commonly used in baking. Icing sugar is produced by grinding sugar to a fine powder and has a grain size of 0.024 mm. Other sugars are created for specific cooking tasks, such as preserving sugar, which is designed to dissolve evenly, thus reducing the risk of burning.

You can find out more about the different grades of white sugar used at the table and in the kitchen by simply selecting an item in the menu below.