Chinese sugar

Browse All Chinese sugar Recipes



Name Variations

 * Rock candy
 * Rock sugar

About Chinese sugar
Chinese sugar is lumps of crystallized, refined sugar sold in plastic bags.

There are two kinds: a clear, gold-coloured sugar, that comes in comes in lumps of varying sizes that you have to whack before using, and a white, opaque kind that comes in more regular shapes. Both kinds will have crystals up to 1 inch (2½ cm) wide, and the same properties.

Chinese Sugar has a clear taste, with no caramel tones even if it is the gold-coloured one. It is not as sweet as regular white granulated sugar. Because it's less sweet, it doesn't overwhelm the flavour of tea as much as white sugar can.

To make it, sugar cane is cooked until it just starts to colour.

The phrase "Chinese Sugar" can also be used to refer to sugar crystals made by suspending string in a raw sugar cane juice. The sugar in the juice crystallizes around the string, forming lumps of sugar crystals around it.

Kwangtung Province in China is known for its production of Chinese Rock Sugar.

About rock candy
A simple hard candy made by allowing a concentrated sugar syrup to evaporate slowly (sometimes for up to a week), during which time it crystallizes into chunks. The crystals can be formed around strings or small sticks (the latter can be used as stir sticks for sweet drinks). Small rock-candy crystals can be used as a fancy sweetener for tea or coffee.

Not as sweet as regular granulated sugar, rock sugar comes in the form of amber-colored crystals, the result of sugar cooked until it begins to color. It's used to sweeten certain Chinese teas and meat glazes.

Rock and Rye liqueur has a large chunk of rock candy in the bottom of the bottle. Rock candy can be made at home or purchased in candy shops.