Cocktails with Powdered sugar
Powdered sugar is granulated sucrose milled to a fine powder, usually cut with a little starch to keep it from clumping.
Substitutes for Powdered sugar
Granulated sugar and simple syrup give the same sweetness with nothing added, and syrup is the cleaner choice in anything cold and clear. A cube is the same sugar in a measured form.
Often confused with
Granulated sugar
Granulated sugar is the same sucrose in coarse crystals, without the starch that keeps powdered sugar free-flowing. It will not dissolve cold, which is exactly why powdered sugar exists: crystals belong in a syrup or under a muddler, not shaken in dry.
Caster sugar
Finer than granulated, coarser than powdered, and with no starch in it at all. It dissolves cold and leaves a stirred drink clear — the better choice wherever the haze would show.
Storage
Airtight and dry. The starch keeps it loose only while it stays dry; damp turns the box into a solid block that no sieve will save. It does not spoil, so a lump means storage went wrong, not that the sugar is old.
