Sorghum syrup is primarily made from the green juice extracted from the stalks of the sorghum plant.
This natural sweetener's production is a direct process that harnesses the internal liquids of the Sorghum bicolor plant. It stands out as a unique syrup due to its straightforward origin directly from the plant's juice, rather than being a byproduct of another manufacturing process.
The Core Ingredient: Sorghum Plant Juice
The foundational component of sorghum syrup is the green juice found abundantly within the fibrous stalks of the mature sorghum plant. This juice is naturally rich in various sugars, including sucrose, glucose, and fructose, which are then concentrated to form the viscous syrup.
How Sorghum Syrup is Produced
The journey from the sorghum plant to the finished syrup involves a series of steps focused on extracting and concentrating these natural sugars. The process generally includes:
- Harvesting and Crushing: Mature sorghum stalks are harvested, and their sturdy structure is then crushed. This mechanical action is crucial for efficiently pressing out the valuable green juice from the plant fibers.
- Juice Extraction: The extracted liquid is the raw green juice, which contains the bulk of the plant's soluble sugars and other compounds.
- Heating and Concentration: The extracted green juice is subsequently heated. The primary purpose of this heating process is to steam off the excess water content. As the water evaporates, the natural sugars and other dissolved solids become increasingly concentrated.
- Syrup Formation: This concentration process continues until the liquid reaches the desired density and viscosity, resulting in the characteristic thick, golden-to-amber sorghum syrup.
It is important to distinguish sorghum syrup from other common sweeteners like molasses. As detailed in the production process, sorghum syrup is a primary product derived directly from the sorghum plant's juice. In contrast, molasses is fundamentally a byproduct of processing sugarcane into granulated sugar, highlighting a key difference in their origins and production methodologies. This distinction underscores sorghum syrup's direct "plant-to-bottle" journey, showcasing its natural derivation from the sorghum plant itself.
