— Kathleen Aoki

That's a good question. Now, Kathleen, I'm going to assume by white sugar, you're talking about white cane sugar, and white cane sugar, table sugar really is what we're talking about, that you find in the markets, is white because it has been filtered through bone char and refined so highly, it is actually 99 point, I think, seven percent pure. It is the only edible food substance that we can put into our mouths that does not need to be digested in the mouth. So all foods, digestion starts in the mouth with saliva. White sugar, refined white sugar is so highly refined that it just hits, and then becomes really more of a problem than just empty calories. So, because this is a dessert course, of course, we are using a variety of sweeteners, and except for some fruit desserts, all of my baked goods, for example, batter-based recipes, I can't say that quickly, rely on or have within them some kind of a granulated or a liquid sweetener. And we have a whole unit on that because it takes a lot of learning. There is so much misinformation out there. So, I'm going to show you. This is organic cane sugar. This happens to be regenerative, and this is cane sugar like table sugar, but it is not as highly refined, and it is not white. It hasn't been bleached, it hasn't been filtered through bone char, and it retains a bit of the molasses that is inherent in the cane. So, I do use this kind of sweetener, this kind of sugar, when I want the closest to a white sugar. It is not quite as sweet, but it's definitely a one-to-one. Now, something else I want to tell you about that is white cane sugar crystals are a particular size. Our vegan cane sugar, which you will also see as fair trade, it's the same thing. The colors range from very pale blonde to a little bit darker, and the crystals from quite small to a little bit more coarse, but they're all larger than a white sugar crystal. So, I lightly grind the sugars in my food processor and store them in one of the big containers behind me. Another sugar that can be used, but let's say not in a lemon cake, is whole cane sugar, which one of the brands is Sucanat, which stands for sugarcane natural, and that is the cane sugar with all of the molasses. In that container, which I can see is quite empty, I have it ground. This is the sugar in its natural form, and it's quite coarse, so it needs to be used ground, and we're going to scale. That adds a kind of a molasses taste. It can almost be a brown sugar replacement. And another sugar I have here-- Oh, this is my coconut sugar. A lot of people like using coconut sugar. It's said to digest a little more slowly, and this imparts also a bit-- It doesn't impart a coconut taste. It imparts more of a brown sugar taste, and this also has to be ground. And here I have a jar of date syrup, and I know that there are people who like to use date sugar. It is just pulverized dried dates, but these are not interchangeable. Date sugar is something that I don't ever use in cakes. It doesn't dissolve. On top of cobblers and crisps, it burns a little, but there are ways to use it. And then, of course, there are the alternatives, which are the liquid sweeteners, maple syrup and barley malt, if you're old school. I haven't used barley malt in a long time, but maple syrup, agave, and rice syrup, which I love. I love the taste of it, but it is not for cakes. And date syrupAnd then there is always molasses. So I hope that answers your question, Kathleen. We have a lot more choices today than I had back in the day when I was pastry chef at Angelica Kitchen, and all we had was, I don't even remember. Maple sugar.