How Sugar Is Made | How It's Made

Find out how a piece of sugar cane is processed and refined to make sugar.

From season 12 episode 4.

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[NinjaKitty_]

If you take the juice right from the cane and boil it down the molasses crystallizes and you get a rock hard brown sugar that in Colombia is called Panela. You just take the cane juice and put in a giant metal bowl and stir constantly while it boils and then when it starts boiling you move it to another metal bowl and repeat the process a few times until you're left with a thick syrup which is poured into molds to cool in and that's how Panela is made.

[bluepearlgirl-emelie]

I had no idea that it took this many processes and ingredients to make sugar! How on earth did they discover all of this? Makes me really appreciate Honey!

[saumitrachakravarty]

All the YouTube industrial videos has taught me that you can solve any problem by spinning it right.

[BeefaloBart]

Growing up in the southern US. Our family had a sugar cane roller press, and cooking pot. My brother and I would go cut the cane, load it on a trailer and bring it to the roller press. My father would feed the cane into the mill. We didn't have a mule to turn the long beam on the roller press, So we had our grandmother on a riding mower to drive in a circle for hours on end. She was fine as long as she had her Lucky Strikes and cup of coffee. The Juice from the press went to the syrup pot where my grandfather would boil and stoke the fire.

[TheBigLeChowski]

I like how they clarified the whole process

[davchan]

We have a few sugar canes in our garden. Back in elementary, my grandma would give some to me so I could sell them at school and get some extra allowance. They tasted great despite being grown in the city and not in a rural or farm-like location.

[RukiMoogle]

It does make you wonder how we got to this point though? Like how did one person suddenly decide to grind a plant like that into something so widely used in most pastries and other things. It just boggles me how far we've come.

[agrocana]

Here in Brazil, sugarcane not only makes sugar but also produces clean energy such as ethanol fuel for cars and with biomass more raw material is extracted to make more fuel. Biomass is also used in energy generators for all.

[allenu]

The sugar does not taste anything like the Sugarcane. I use to pick sugarcane in the desert Nothing like it! Soooo good!

[BaghaShams]

I prefer How It's Made. Their explanations don't have as many gaps and the music is better.

[lory]

Nothing like freshly squeezed Sugarcane juice. Man I miss my early years in Brazil

[jerryg]

Sugar canes are very juicy and tasty. They taste great raw, much better than just sugar. But you gotta spit out the fibers after you chew them to extract the juices. I see them sold in some asian supermarkets in North America.

[enchantinosis]

Watching videos like this makes me realize I can’t imagine designing this process myself, and that’s humbling.

[Serjo]

Wtf is this man, this is like a million times more complicated and labor intensive than I would have ever imagined...

[cosmicinsane]

My sergeant in the army was from the gulf coast of the US, and never knew sugar was also made from sugar beets. We passed a pile of sugar beets while on a run outside our base in Germany, and he asked what they were. He didn’t believe me that they were used to make sugar.

[zernix]

Fascinating! Would never have suspected that a centrifuge is used to separate out the molasses!

[bookburner]

cant believe all this is happening behind the scenes in my crafting menu whenever I make sugar

[Andenvan]

I didn't know how sugar was made, but this was not close to what I expected

[Deja_Vroom]

One piece of sugar cane should get you one piece of sugar if crafted correctly

[Yungbeck]

If you take out the narration I'd say they were making some kind of industrial chemical. Gnarly process.