How Many Grams in a Cup of Brown Sugar?

Brown sugar is granulated sugar combined with molasses, available as light or dark varieties with varying molasses content. One US cup of packed brown sugar weighs 220 grams—heavier than white sugar because the moist, sticky crystals pack together when pressed. Recipes specifying brown sugar almost always mean firmly packed unless stated otherwise.

To measure accurately, press brown sugar into a dry measuring cup with the back of a spoon until it holds the shape of the cup when inverted. Loosely filled brown sugar weighs far less than 220 grams and will throw off cookie spread, moisture, and caramelization. Weighing eliminates packing ambiguity entirely.

The most common mistake is using unpacked brown sugar, which can reduce the amount by 30 to 50 grams per cup and produce pale, dry baked goods. Another error is substituting white sugar by volume without adding molasses—flavor and texture will differ. Confusing packed weight with loose weight causes recipe failures in chocolate chip cookies and barbecue sauces.

Store brown sugar in an airtight container to prevent hardening; revive hardened sugar with a damp paper towel in the microwave or a brown sugar saver disc. Substitute white sugar plus molasses: one cup white sugar plus one tablespoon molasses approximates light brown sugar at roughly 200g plus molasses weight.

The packed measurement standard exists because brown sugar's moisture creates air pockets when loose and dense crystals when compressed. Recipe developers test with 220 grams per packed cup, so unpacking yields cookies that spread too thin and barbecue glazes that taste flat. When a recipe lists both light and dark brown sugar interchangeably, the weight stays the same though molasses intensity changes. For caramel and toffee work, weighing brown sugar prevents scorching caused by incorrect sugar-to-butter ratios that volume measuring introduces when packing pressure varies between cooks.

If your brown sugar hardened, microwave with a damp towel before packing into a cup; softened sugar packs to 220 grams more reliably than rock-hard clumps that leave air voids in the measure.