How sweet is ‘Yiwu Dark’ brown sugar?
Print Edition
STEWED slowly by firewood without industrialized vacuum evaporators or centrifuges, or even additives, the sugarcane juice thickens to form a granulated brown sugar.
Yiwu’s brown sugar lumps boast a natural “dark” color over the light brown surface, and hence the name, “Yiwu Dark.”
Compared with refined white sugar, brown sugar has a lot of mineral substance. It has health benefits ranging from soothing menstrual cramps to serving as an anti-aging skin treatment.
Every year from late October to the end of December, local villagers in Yiwu of east China’s Zhejiang Province start to produce their Yiwu Dark at the “cottage workshops.”
The traditional practices have a history of over 300 years.
Sugarcane juice is first boiled in open woks on wood-fired stoves until it reaches approximately 30 percent of the volume and the sucrose begins to crystallize.
The raw sugar is then poured into molds to solidify or onto cooling pans to be beaten or worked vigorously to produce ranulated brown sugar.
The duration and degree of heating while stewing brown sugar needs a lot of attention to ensure a longer shelf life.
By adding rice, peanuts or sesame, a variety of desserts such as fried dough twists are made for the coming New Year and the Spring Festival, symbolizing a year’s hard work that finally begins to pay off. During the entire sugar-making process, the air is sweet with the rich aroma of the boiled brown sugar.
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