Brown sugar refers to the finished sugar of sugar cane and honey, which is made by squeezing and concentrating sugar cane. Brown sugar is divided into flake sugar, brown sugar powder and bowl sugar. According to the different crystal particles, it contains almost all the components in sugarcane juice because it is not highly refined. Besides the function of sugar, it also contains vitamins and trace elements, such as iron, zinc, manganese and chromium. Its nutrient content is much higher than that of white sugar.
Brown sugar is a crude sugar refined from sugarcane by squeezing juice, clarifying, boiling and lime method. In the whole processing process, no chemical reagents and food additives are added except lime, and the original flavor and nutritional components of sugarcane are completely preserved. Brown sugar is different from refined sugar such as white sugar and brown sugar. It is a kind of non-honey, that is, sugar made without too much honey treatment.
Before large-scale production of refined sugar, non-fractionated honey was the main consumption form of sugarcane sugar, which had different names and forms around the world, such as Japanese Okinawa brown sugar (Kokuto), Latin American brown sugar (Panela) and South Asian African coarse sugar (Jaggery), all of which were essentially concentrated sugarcane juice.
Mr. Ji Xianlin believes that the specific origin time of brown sugar in China "began in a certain era from the Three Kingdoms, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, at least before the post-Wei Dynasty." It was not widely eaten in the early days of its production, and it was basically used as medicine. Its usage is recorded in pharmacopoeias such as Qian Jin Fang Yao and Dietetic Materia Medica. Since Emperor Taizong sent envoys to India to learn the improved technology of sucrose, the open fire cooking method has been popularized, the planting area of sugarcane in China has gradually expanded, and brown sugar has gradually entered people's homes, and it has also changed from medicinal to edible.