The term sugar simply means cane sugar, a crystalised state, C12H22O11, extracted from sugarcane and sugar beet.
So with less sugar, it means cutting down on the amount of sugar content in the product. Like the above image shown, it represents the amount of sugar that they are using in their drinks compared to their competitors’ drinks. Obviously, 50% lesser but this doesn’t mean that their drinks are sugar-less! Less sugar does not equal to sugar free.
By definition, sugar free does not mean the product wouldn’t be sweet. I had this customer who panic and rang me up after realising a free upgrade to sugar-free version was given to her instead. She told me that her boy loves sweet cakes and if the cake I gave her was sugar-free, he won’t like it. After hearing that, I assured her that the cake was equally sweet, except that I’m using “good sugar”, not cane sugar.
What is “good sugar”? By quality standard, sugar-free means that the product consists of less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving. In order to maintain its actual level of sweetness, a sugar substitute would be used to replace the sweetness and has less food energy and low glycemic index which is highly suitable for diabetic patients. Some sugar substitutes are natural and some are chemicals. Those that are not natural are, in general, referred to as artificial sweeteners e.g. Equal, Sweet ‘n’ Low etc.
In Delcie’s bakery, we ONLY use natural sweetener which we import from Europe. Thus, for diabetic patients, they can be sure to have their cake and eat it too!
Note: For our standard cakes, only organic raw sugar is being used. When diabetic-friendly version is chosen, we will replace the organic raw sugar with our natural sweetener. Irregardless, one must still eat anything in moderation.
