Raw Sugar

Sugarcane is a type of grass which grows in the tropics. People in India and parts of Asia realized that sugarcane was naturally very sweet thousands of years ago, and they started pressing it for the sweet juice and refining the result. Once the juice has been extracted, it is boiled and then cooled, allowing it to crystallize. Depending on how it is handled, the sugar may crystallize into a very fine, granular sugar with a high molasses content which can be sold as-is or further refined into brown and white sugars, or it can form large pale golden crystals, which are sold as raw sugar.