Muscovado Sugar

One US cup of muscovado sugar weighs between 200 and 235 grams, depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. That range is the answer; a single number would not be. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called barbados sugar, moscovado sugar, unrefined cane sugar, khandsari, dark muscovado, light muscovado.

TL;DR: Muscovado sugar (unrefined cane sugar with intact molasses) shows real commercial variance from roughly 200 to 235 grams per cup packed, driven by the light-versus-dark spectrum and the odd physics of a sticky sugar with no legal composition standard. Publishing the range because the sources honestly disagree about whether muscovado weighs more or less per cup than standard brown sugar.

Muscovado — also called Barbados sugar, moscovado, khandsari or khand — is minimally refined cane sugar in which the natural molasses of the cane juice is preserved rather than extracted. It comes in light and dark grades corresponding to molasses content (roughly 6-8% for light, 8-13% for dark), with a moist, clumpy, wet-sand texture that behaves nothing like refined granulated sugar in the cup. India Tree and Billington's are the dominant US retail brands, both sourcing from Mauritius; Wholesome Sweeteners is a smaller domestic option. Per Wikipedia, there is no legal or Codex definition of muscovado and no protected designation of origin, which means brand-to-brand variation is structural rather than an artifact of measurement.

King Arthur Baking does not list muscovado on their ingredient weight chart, and USDA FoodData Central has no distinct muscovado composition entry. The closest USDA reference is generic 'Sugar, brown' at 220 grams per US cup packed, which serves as the middle-of-the-road anchor even though it was measured on refined brown sugar rather than muscovado specifically. Producer labels are unhelpful for cup conversions because Nutrition Facts panels for sticky sugars typically list a teaspoon serving (4-5 g) rather than a cup, and extrapolating teaspoon figures to cups introduces packing variance that swamps any real signal.

The published sources cluster into three positions. Lighter figures (200 g/cup from CupOrGram's baseline, approximately 192 g/cup from India Tree's teaspoon extrapolation) suggest muscovado packs looser than brown sugar because its higher molasses content makes the crystals clump into irregular aggregates with air gaps between them. Standard-packed figures (220 g/cup) match USDA's brown sugar reference and are what CupGrams reports for muscovado 'packed like brown sugar.' Heavier figures (235 g/cup, per MissVickie) argue that muscovado's molasses content makes it denser than dark brown sugar because the syrupy liquid fills interstitial space that would otherwise be air.

The physical arguments cut both ways, which is why the sources disagree. Molasses is roughly 40 percent denser than sucrose crystals, so a muscovado sample with more molasses fluid should weigh more per unit volume than one with less. But molasses also makes crystals sticky and irregular, so they cannot nestle together as tightly as clean granulated crystals, creating air pockets that reduce packing efficiency. Which effect dominates depends on how firmly the sample is packed into the cup, the specific batch's crystal size distribution, and the light-versus-dark grade. Real-world variance across brands and even across batches from the same producer is genuine, not a measurement error.

Practical baker recommendation: weigh muscovado. If a cup measurement is unavoidable, treat it exactly like brown sugar and pack firmly with the back of a spoon or your fingers to eliminate air gaps, and use 220 g per cup as a working figure while accepting that a specific bag could weigh anywhere from 200 to 235 g. For dark muscovado, aim slightly higher within the range; for light muscovado, slightly lower. In recipes where sugar precision matters (macarons, meringues, brittle), muscovado's variance is a reason to prefer refined brown sugar with published label weights.