Most of us grew up thinking that “sugar” meant one thing: white, sweet, and in practically everything. But nature doesn’t sweeten with a single brush. From tree sap to cane juice to honeybee nectar, natural sweeteners come in a spectrum of flavors and very often are loaded with good-for-you micronutrients such as minerals and antioxidants. They’re not just pantry staples. They’re snapshots of place and process and can fundamentally transform the character of your treats.
Honey
Honey may be the oldest concentrated sweetener in the human diet. Our relationship with it spans millennia—evidence of honey gathering appears in prehistoric cave paintings on the Iberian Peninsula, dating back more than 8,000 years. It informed the medical and culinary practices of ancient Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, and India. There may be merit to those ancient remedies. Honey is a nutritional powerhouse, packed with enzymes, antioxidants, and prebiotics. It also contains B vitamins and trace minerals.
More than 1,000 bees are needed to gather the pollen for producing 16 ounces of raw honey. Shaiith/Shutterstock
These antioxidants largely come from the pollen that honeybees gather. This pollen influences the flavor, color, and even texture of raw honey, creating beautiful and unique varietals that range in color from pale and straw-colored to a rich mahogany brown. The flavors change, too, depending on which botanicals the bees had access to. Wildflower honey tastes sweet and slightly floral. The honey from bees that gather pollen from blackberry flowers tastes vaguely of berries, and buckwheat honey has notes of chocolate and toffee.
Look for honey from local beekeepers at roadside farm stands, farmers markets, and natural food stores. Honey is perfect for drizzling into yogurt, swirling into drinks, or adding to marinades and vinaigrettes. Because it’s a liquid sweetener, adding honey to baked goods in place of sugar can be a bit tricky and requires adjusting the ratio of other liquids, such as water and milk. It’s also a touch sweeter than cane sugar, so you may need to add less to your favorite recipes. Just keep in mind that heating raw honey to temperatures higher than 95 degrees Fahrenheit will begin to alter its chemical composition, decreasing its taste and health benefits.
Maple
Maple syrup and sugar are made by boiling down the sap of sugar maple trees, concentrating both their sweetness and flavor. Unlike refined white sugar, maple syrup retains both its sweetness and its micronutrients, such as manganese, zinc, and riboflavin. Maple syrup’s flavor deepens with its color. Golden maple syrup is the lightest, both in flavor and appearance, while amber is richer, and dark maple syrup is the most intense. Look for pure, Grade A maple syrup and avoid products labeled “pancake syrup,” which often contain little more than corn syrup and food colorings.
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of maple syrup. Cindy Creighton/Shutterstock
Maple syrup is excellent for adding to fruit compotes or drizzling over porridge, but, being a liquid, it can be tricky to add to baked goods. Maple sugar, by contrast, offers the same intense flavor as maple syrup and can be substituted one-to-one for cane sugar in most baking recipes. You can buy high-quality maple syrup and sugar at most well-stocked health food stores as well as many farmers markets in regions that grow sugar maple trees, such as New England.
Jaggery, Panela, and Piloncillo
Minimally processed cane sugars such as jaggery (India) and piloncillo (Mexico) are made by boiling sugarcane juice until it crystallizes (piloncillo is also known as panela in South America). Then the crystallized sugar is pressed into dense blocks or cones. Unlike white sugar, they’re unrefined and retain a range of minerals, including iron, potassium, and calcium. Their flavor is bold and rich with notes of molasses, making them ideal in recipes that can handle their strong personality. Use them in braises, curries, spiced baked goods, or to sweeten a cup of coffee.
Minimally processed cane sugars like jaggery are made by boiling sugarcane juice. Much of the world's sugarcane is still harvested by hand. Freepik
Panela is commonly used in Latin American countries. art samuel/Shutterstock
Because minimally processed sugars are typically sold in solid blocks, you may need to shave or grate them before using. Some companies have begun making granulated versions of these traditional sweeteners that are easier to measure and use. Look for versions labeled organic and fair trade. Most well-stocked health food stores carry a wide variety of minimally processed sugars, and you can also find them in specialty stores selling imported culinary favorites from India as well as Central and South America.
Molasses
A byproduct of sugar refining, molasses is where the nutrients go when white sugar is stripped down. Rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, molasses has a mineral-like richness that provides balance to its sweetness. Molasses comes in a few different styles. Light molasses is sweet and mellow, perfect for everyday baking. Dark molasses has a deeper, more robust flavor that brings richness to cookies and sauces. Blackstrap molasses is the most intense, bitter, thick, and packed with minerals. It is best used in small amounts in foods in which bold flavor is welcome.
Molasses can be made at home with brown sugar, sugar beets, or sugarcane juice. Halil ibrahim mescioglu/Shutterstock
Sometimes manufacturers add sulfur dioxide, a preservative, to molasses, so look for unsulfured molasses for the best flavor. You can find molasses in most grocery stores, although natural food stores tend to have a wider variety of options.
Natural sweeteners do more than just make things taste good. They carry nuance, depth, and a bit of nutrition, too. They ask you to slow down and enjoy the process of cooking, tasting, and sharing your food. Pick the right one, and you’re not just adding sweetness—you’re adding character to the whole dish.
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