Brownsugarexporter.com - Molasses, from the Latin word
melaceres, meaning honey-like, is a thick dark syrup that is a byproduct of
sugar refining. It results when sugar is crystallized out of sugar cane or
sugar beet juice. Molasses is sold both for human consumption, to be used in
baking, and in the brewing of ale and distillation of rum, and as an ingredient
in animal feed.
History
The
pressing of cane to produce cane juice and then boiling the juice until it
crystallized was developed in India as early as 500 B.C. However, it was slow
to move to the rest of the world. In the Middle Ages, Arab invaders brought the
process to Spain. A century or so later, Christopher Columbus brought sugar
cane to the West Indies. Another two hundred years later, cuttings were planted
in New Orleans.
Molasses
figured prominently in the infamous slave trade triangles of the late
seventeenth century. English rum was sold to African slave traders who brought
slaves to the West Indies and then brought West Indian molasses back to
England.
Using
sugar beets to produce sugar was not developed until the mid-1700s when a
German chemist Andreas Marggraf discovered the presence of sugar in the
vegetable. By 1793, another German chemist, Franz Karl Achard, perfected the
process for extracting the sugar from the beets.
The first
beet sugar factory opened in Prussian province of Silesia in 1802. During the
Napoleonic Wars, the British blockaded France, cutting off French access to
sugar imports from the West Indies. Napoleon then issued land grants and large
sums of money to encourage the establishment of a beet sugar industry. One man
who took Napoleon up on his offer was a French banker named Benjamin Delessert.
Delessert set up several beet sugar factories at Passy and within two years
produced four million kilos of sugar. For his efforts, Napoleon awarded
Delessert with the medal of the Legion of Honor. By the end of 1813, 334 French
sugar beet plantations were producing 35,000 tons of sugar.
In
contrast, the beet sugar industry struggled in the United States until the end
of the nineteenth century when a California factory finally turned a profit. At
the turn of the century, the country had 30 beet sugar processing plants.
Molasses
figured prominently in two peculiar events in United States history. The first
was the Molasses Act of 1733, which imposed duties on all sugar and molasses
brought into North American colonies from non-British possessions. The second
was the Great Boston Molasses Flood of January 1919 when a molasses storage
tank owned by the Purity Distilling Company burst, sending a two-story-high
wave of molasses through the streets of the North End of Boston.
Before the
advent of harvesting machinery, laborers performed the back-breaking work of
cutting and stripping the sugarcane by hand. Mule-driven mills pressed the
sugar cane to release the syrup, which was then cooked in large kettles over a
fire until thickened. Workers, usually the farmer's wife and
children, poured the syrup into cans and covered them. The cans were loaded
onto a platform and cooled by an overhead fan.
Raw
Materials
Sugar cane
or sugar beets are the primary ingredient for the sugar process of which
molasses is a byproduct. Sugar cane (Saccharum officenarum) is a tall thick
perennial that thrives in tropical and subtropical regions. It can grow to
heights range from 10-26 ft (3.05-7.9 m), and measuring 1-2 in (2.54-5.08 cm)
in diameter. Colors range from white to yellow to green to purple. The
Everglades of south Florida are a major producer of sugar cane with 425,000
acres grown annually that yields 90 million gallons of black strap molasses. At
harvest time, the stalks are stripped of their leaves and trimmed.
Sugar
beets (Beta vulgaris) can tolerate more temperate or colder climates than sugar
cane. Therefore, the choices of growing areas is greater. At the end of the
twentieth century, the leading sugar beet producers were Russia, France, the
United States, and West Germany. The sugar is contained in the vegetable's
root, approximately 15 teaspoons per beet root. At harvest, the tops are
removed and used for cattle feed.
Milk of
lime is used in the clarification process. Essentially burnt lime, it is
produced in the factory by heating lime rock in a kiln. The lime rock is then
mixed with sweet water—a byproduct of a previous clarification process.
Carbon
dioxide is released in the lime milk process. It is purified in tanks and also
used in to clarify the sugar juice.