Also available in whole 25 kg bags here. It's much cheaper as a whole bag because muscovado sugar is a nuisance to handle. Imagine an extra-sticky version of brown sugar.

Muscovado sugar is an unrefined or minimally refined cane sugar that can make for a unique sort of rum, basically as close as you’re going to get to a “rhum” (or cachaça) without growing and pressing your own fresh sugarcane.

It captures more of the original sugarcane character because it is just crystallised sugarcane juice, without the refining that goes on to make brown sugar, “raw sugar”, white sugars and molasses. Those products are all the result of refining;

• white sugar is the purified sweet sucrose at the end of the process
• molasses is what was removed to make the refined white sugar (twice: at both the milling and refining stages)
• brown sugar is essentially white sugar with some molasses re-added
• even “raw sugar” (as is typically labelled and sold in NZ) has the blackstrap molasses removed at the cane mill, then is processed, crystallised at least twice, and filtered

The smell of muscovado sugar is very reminiscent of the smell of a sugar refinery, i.e. those aromas lost in refining and that are not going to end up in finished, refined product. This is even true of those products where molasses is re-introduced (brown sugar) or where additional processing steps take place (“raw sugar”), as some important elements are lost during the production of raw sugar at the cane mill, then in refining. Note: there is also a "light" version of muscovado sugar, where some of the molasses has been removed. We don't stock that one for obvious reasons.

Dark muscovado sugar can be used as an alternative to molasses in making rum, or to supplement a molasses wash. Can also be used as a richer and more-characterful direct replacement anywhere that brown sugar is called for.

As it has the original sugarcane juice, muscovado sugar can potentially provide the basic yeast nutrition needed for fermentation. However, as it is not as nutrient-rich as pure molasses, some form of added nutrient is always a good idea.

Usage rates:

Similar to other dry sugar products, but slightly more is needed due to the natural molasses content. Roughly 4.5 kg – 7 kg per 25 litre rum wash, depending on yeast choice and desired wash strength, should produce around 9% – 15% ABV.

Muscovado sugar is also an excellent contender if you want to back-sweeten your rum during or after aging. This is common practice and is often a key part of the final rum's character.