Billingtons Sugar supply issue in UK? (2020)

Isn't sugar just sugar? Or is there something special about this Billingtons?

It's been a couple weeks since I've been in the shop, but the (small, bio) shop I usually go to here in London has had Billingtons stocked for all of lockdown. The only thing they've been out of is flour.

I whole-heartedly agree on the cane-vs-beet sugar issue. Coming from the US, I'd no idea beet sugar existed and spent several months at the start of my time in Europe thinking that the sugar here just tasted terrible!

I started researching "blackstrap" molasses (the most concentrated kind) when I wanted to use its potassium and magnesium content (electrolytes) to create my own sports drink.  

That led me to ask "What kind of sugar has _all_ the molasses from the sugar cane?"  Answer: Muscovado, panela, and jaggery.  (Not turbinado, nor demerara.)  But even then, it's not guaranteed to be 100%.  

So the way to control and measure the potassium and magnesium, was to go with a known and consistent thing: blackstrap molasses.  Brer Rabbit brand molasses in the US  has three grades: mild, full flavor, and blackstrap; which have 100mg, 200 mg, and 400 mg potassium per tablespoon.  All have the same calories per tablespoon, so I went with blackstrap to get the most electrolytes per calorie.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar#Natural_brown_sugar

 (Bolding mine.) (Retrieved June 16, 2020) 

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Natural brown sugar, raw sugar or whole cane sugar are sugars that retain a small to large amount of the molasses from the mother liquor (the partially evaporated sugar cane juice). Based upon weight, brown cane sugar when fully refined yields up to 70% white sugar, the degree depending on how much molasses remained in the sugar crystals, which in turn is dependent upon whether the brown sugar was centrifuged or not.[6][7] As there is more molasses in natural brown sugar, it contains minor nutritional value and mineral content.

Some natural brown sugars have particular names and characteristics, and are sold as turbinado, demerara or raw sugar if they have been centrifuged to a large degree. Brown sugars that have been only mildly centrifuged or unrefined (non-centrifuged) retain a much higher degree of molasses and are called various names across the globe according to their country of origin: e.g. panela, rapadura, jaggery, muscovado, piloncillo, etc.

Although brown sugar has been touted as having health benefits ranging from soothing menstrual cramps to serving as an anti-aging skin treatment,[8] there is no nutritional basis to support brown sugar as a healthier alternative to refined sugars despite the negligible amounts of minerals in brown sugar not found in white sugar.[9]

Turbinado, demerara and "raw" sugars are made from crystallized, partially evaporated sugar cane juice and spun in a centrifuge to remove almost all of the molasses. The sugar crystals are large and golden-coloured. This sugar can be sold as is or sent to the refinery to produce white sugar.[10]

Muscovado, panela, piloncillo, chancaca, jaggery and other natural dark brown sugars have been minimally centrifuged or not at all. Typically these sugars are made in smaller factories or "cottage industries" in developing nations, where they are produced with traditional practices that do not make use of industrialized vacuum evaporators or centrifuges. They are commonly boiled in open pans upon wood-fired stoves until the sugar cane juice reaches approximately 30% of the former volume and sucrose crystallization begins. They are then poured into molds to solidify or onto cooling pans where they are beaten or worked vigorously to produce a granulated brown sugar. In some countries, such as Mauritius or the Philippines, a natural brown sugar called muscovado is produced by partially centrifuging the evaporated and crystallizing cane juice to create a sugar-crystal rich mush, which is allowed to drain under gravity to produce varying degrees of molasses content in the final product. This process approximates a slightly modernized practice introduced in the 19th century to generate a better quality of natural brown sugar.[7][11][12][13] A similar Japanese version of uncentrifuged natural cane sugar is called kokuto (Japanese: 黒糖 kokutō). This is a regional specialty of Okinawa and is often sold in the form of large lumps. It is sometimes used to make shochu.

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For domestic purposes one can create the exact equivalent of brown sugar by mixing white sugar with molasses. Suitable proportions are about one tablespoon of molasses to each cup of sugar (one-sixteenth of the total volume). Molasses comprises 10% of brown sugar's total weight,[3] which is about one ninth of the white sugar weight. Due to varying qualities and colors of molasses products,[3] for lighter or darker sugar, reduce or increase its proportion according to taste.

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I am a buying group with a few other households and we order organic stuff in bulk from Suma Wholefoods. A coop member there told me recently that there were some supply issues for Billingtons in Mauritius which was causing their sugars to be unavailable for some time.

Suma do really tasty, I think, soft dark and light brown cane sugars and also raw cane granulated. More expensive than standard white beet sugar but very nice. Check out local health food shops for them. 

I was just about to write that I’d never heard of organic beet sugar, but then thought I’d google it and lo, such a thing does exist!