Demerara Sugar

One US cup of demerara sugar weighs 192.1 grams. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.52 cups.

Also called demerara, raw cane sugar, large crystal sugar, golden brown sugar, unrefined cane sugar.

TL;DR: Demerara sugar weighs 192 grams per cup (0.812 g/mL) based on four converging USDA Branded Foods entries for retail demerara products. King Arthur's chart value of 220 g/cup is rejected as inconsistent with both multi-producer convergence and with KA's own turbinado sugar figure — physically similar coarse-crystal raw cane sugars should not disagree by 22 percent in the same measuring cup.

Demerara sugar is a coarse-crystal raw cane sugar with roughly 3 to 5 percent residual molasses, originally named after the Demerara region of Guyana where it was first produced commercially. It sits between refined granulated sugar (fully purged of molasses) and muscovado (heavily molasses-laden) on the cane-sugar spectrum, closer to the refined end. Its large, dry, free-flowing crystals distinguish it from moist packed sugars like brown sugar and muscovado — demerara is measured spooned-and-leveled, not packed. Florida Crystals, C&H, and various imported UK brands (Billington's, Whitworths, Tate & Lyle) are the dominant retail sources in the US market; the same product is often sold interchangeably with turbinado under different marketing labels.

Four USDA Branded Foods entries — UPC 075779311169, UPC 06906502532, UPC 075779920002, and UPC 069065004996 — all report 203 grams per metric cup, which converts to 192 grams per US cup within rounding. The UPCs cluster into two manufacturer groups (075779... and 069065...), so this represents at least two independent producers reporting the same density across four SKUs. King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart lists demerara at 220 grams per cup — 15 percent higher than the producer convergence, and out of family with the rest of KA's own data.

The internal-consistency argument against KA's figure is the strongest one. Turbinado sugar is the closest physical cousin to demerara — both are coarse-crystal raw cane sugars with similar residual molasses and similar bulk-density behavior in the cup. KA lists turbinado at 180 grams per cup while USDA lists it at 202 grams per US cup, a modest gap in the direction of KA measuring looser than USDA. But for demerara, KA reports 220 grams per cup versus USDA's 192 — a 15 percent gap in the opposite direction, with KA now measuring 22 percent denser than KA's own turbinado. There is no physical reason for demerara to pack 22 percent tighter than turbinado in the same measuring cup by the same person. The KA demerara figure fails its own internal consistency test and is best read as an anomalous chart entry rather than a general reference.

The physical reasoning behind 192 g/cup checks out. Demerara crystals are coarse, dry, and geometrically irregular, so they leave interstitial air gaps when spooned into a cup — the same reason turbinado is less dense than granulated sugar (202 versus 200 g/cup by USDA figures). At 192 g/cup demerara sits slightly below turbinado, consistent with demerara typically having slightly larger and more irregular crystals (though the two products overlap heavily in commercial practice — many brands label essentially the same product either way).

Practical baker recommendation: use 192 g/cup for demerara. If a recipe was developed against KA's 220 figure and calls for a cup of demerara, that recipe is expecting 15 percent more sugar than a leveled cup actually delivers — worth knowing when scaling or converting. Weighing removes the entire question.

The following published figures for demerara sugar are rejected here, with the physics or standards reasoning behind each rejection on its own page:

• King Arthur Baking (Ingredient Weight Chart): 220 g per cup