# Cane sugar vs. beet sugar

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cane-sugar-vs-beet-sugar/469351>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 24, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cane-sugar-vs-beet-sugar/469351 "2008-10-24T14:47:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![StinkyBurrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@StinkyBurrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkyBurrito)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cane-sugar-vs-beet-sugar/469351/21 "2008-10-28T12:42:11Z")

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I decided to buy some locally grown Pioneer brand beet sugar a couple of nights ago because of this thread. I always sought out cane sugar before because I had always heard it was better, but now that I have learned the truth (it is mostly folklore and propoganda), I will feel free to buy beet sugar from now on. I made some herb jelly with it the other night and it is just fine.

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**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cane-sugar-vs-beet-sugar/469351/22 "2008-10-28T13:58:30Z")

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The brand of sugar was C&H. I didn’t realize I had gotten it wrong till I went home and looked at the box of brown sugar I had in that brand. Thanks for your answers and links. I really hadn’t thought much about where sugar came from; I associated sugar with sugar cane till I saw a bit on Sesame Street about sugar beets. Later I read _Centennial,_ which had a section about sugar beet farming, but it never occurred to me to wonder about possible differences till I read the C&H packages.

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**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cane-sugar-vs-beet-sugar/469351/23 "2008-10-28T17:48:12Z")

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> [@Telperien](#):
>
> The brand of sugar was C&H. I didn’t realize I had gotten it wrong till I went home and looked at the box of brown sugar I had in that brand. Thanks for your answers and links. I really hadn’t thought much about where sugar came from; I associated sugar with sugar cane till I saw a bit on Sesame Street about sugar beets. Later I read _Centennial,_ which had a section about sugar beet farming, but it never occurred to me to wonder about possible differences till I read the C&H packages.

Some of Michener’s other novels describing sugar cane economies are _Hawaii_ and _Caribbean_. The tale of the rise of wealthy sugar planters and their subsequent downfall due to the U.S.'s sugar beet production is fascinating. I found the stories of richer-than-God West Indies British colonial planters who kept several seats in parliament particularly interesting. I like British literature, and there are frequent references to “rich West Indian heiresses” of about that time period.

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