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The Fabled Pour

Sugar cube

Also called sugar lump, demerara cube, white sugar cube

A pressed cube of granulated sugar, about 4 g, muddled with bitters in an Old Fashioned or a Sazerac and soaked for a Champagne Cocktail. It dissolves slowly, which is the point: the muddling and the grit are part of the ritual. Demerara cubes add a little molasses.

  • clean sweetness
  • neutral
  • light caramel in demerara cubes
  • slow dissolving grit

Origin

Jakub Kryštof Rad made the first sugar cubes at Dačice in the early 1840s and patented them in 1843, pressing moistened granulated sugar into molds and drying it; modern cubes are made the same way at about 3 to 5 g each. Sugar itself traveled from New Guinea cane to Indian crystals, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean plantations before 19th century refining made white sugar common. The cube survived in the bar through the Old Fashioned and the absinthe drip long after it left the kitchen.

Production and safety

Shelf stable; keep dry. One standard cube (about 4 g) equals roughly 0.25 oz / 7.5 ml of simple syrup or 1 tsp / 5 ml of rich syrup. Muddle with a few dashes of bitters and a splash of water until mostly dissolved before adding spirit, or the drink stays sweet at the bottom.

Allergens: None

Common uses

  • old-fashioned
  • sazerac
  • Champagne Cocktail
  • absinthe drip
  • caipirinha (loose sugar muddled with lime)

Pours that use it

Sources

  1. Sugar cubes (Wikipedia), Wikipedia · tertiary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
  2. The history of sugar (Sugar Association), The Sugar Association · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11