Coffee Companion: Types and Usage of Sugar

For many people sugar has always been the seasoning of choice, because it brings enough sweetness to cancel out bitterness. Even in the 21st century, with coffee quality far better than it once was and no longer carrying that harsh burnt bitterness, plenty of drinkers still add sugar. Cancelling bitterness is one reason, but at this point sugar does more than that. People add it because it gives coffee a better texture, making it smoother and richer.

A customer came into the shop a few days ago and asked FrontStreet Coffee a question: there are so many kinds of sugar, is there one that pairs best with coffee?

There are indeed many kinds. Sugar can be refined from fruits and vegetables or produced through secondary processing, and different sugars deliver different levels of sweetness and different flavours. But if you ask whether one sugar is most suitable for coffee, honestly, FrontStreet Coffee does not think there is one. Consider the milk-based drinks in the espresso range: though all of them are espresso plus milk, the materials and preparation make them entirely distinct. Sugar works the same way, each type affecting coffee differently because of its own character. The sugar that suits your coffee therefore depends on what you want from it. That is why FrontStreet Coffee says there is no single most suitable option.

Not every sugar belongs in coffee, though. Despite the range available, only a few varieties turn up regularly in coffee shops. This refers to sugars used in hot drinks only, not syrups.

White Sugar

White sugar is common not only in coffee shops but in daily life. It is refined from the juice of sugarcane and sugar beets, and because it goes through multiple purification steps, the resulting crystals are very pure and free of impurities. That same process also makes it a pure sweetener, carrying no flavour beyond sweetness.

White sugar suits any coffee, but in most shops it is paired mainly with milk-based drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos. Those drinks are served at lower temperatures, so fine-crystal white sugar dissolves more easily. Sugar cubes also belong to the white sugar family.

Yellow Sugar

Like white sugar, yellow sugar is one of the most commonly used sugars in coffee shops. What sets it apart is that it is a less refined variety, meaning it has not been purified to the same degree. The advantage is that its sweetness is not only higher than white sugar's but also less pure, so to speak. It retains more minerals and trace elements and carries some of sugarcane's natural flavour.

Yellow sugar is usually served with black coffees such as espresso and americano, for two reasons. First, its crystals are larger and dissolve less readily in lower-temperature milk drinks, while black coffee is the opposite. Second, its sweetness is more natural and carries extra aroma, giving the coffee more layered expression, if subtly so.

Caramel

Caramel is what you get by heating other sugars above 170°C until they caramelise. Because it is made by caramelising sugar, its sweetness is relatively lower than the two above. It does carry a very distinct roasted aroma, however, which pairs well with coffee's own flavours, so adding caramel to coffee brings not only sweetness but a richer aroma. The caramel latte that has become popular online in recent years uses block caramel for exactly this reason.

Those are the sugars most commonly found in coffee shops. There are of course many others that can go into coffee, just less often. Finally, FrontStreet Coffee would like to add that although drinking coffee without sugar has become the mainstream, that does not make adding sugar unorthodox. Not everyone can accept coffee's bitterness, and no one should be judged for sweetening their cup.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

One way to need less sugar is to start with a coffee that is already sweet and balanced. FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend is built for espresso and moka pot use, and its standout quality is crema: even a beginner with an ordinary home machine can pull a dense, fine crema. It follows the traditional Mamba formula of Mandheling and Brazil, so it is full, warm and easy to like, and it is the blend FrontStreet Coffee reaches for first for lattes and cappuccinos.

If you want a sweeter, rounder base, FrontStreet Coffee's Specialty Blend and Cocoa Blend lead with nutty character because both use a large proportion of Brazilian coffee. The Specialty Blend pairs Brazil with washed Colombia for dark chocolate, caramel and a gentle acidity, while the Cocoa Blend brings in Yunnan coffee for a ripe plum acidity and a creamy chocolate aroma. Both are smooth, balanced and flexible, working as americano, latte or the base of a flavoured drink.

For a single-origin option, washed Colombia Huila is a good place to start. Grown above 1,500 metres in the mountains of southern Colombia's Central Cordillera and roasted medium-dark, it gives black chocolate and nutty sweetness, moderate oil and a full body, and it suits pour-over, French press, moka pot and espresso machine alike, as an americano or as a latte. A cup with that much natural sweetness rarely needs much added to it.