Sugar cane is a very tall grass that can grow up to 20 feet high, which is taller than a giraffe! It loves to grow in warm, sunny, tropical places like Brazil, India, and Hawaii. The plant has thick, juicy stems that are full of sweet sap, and if you bit into a piece of raw sugar cane, it would taste like chewing on a sweet, juicy stick. People have been growing sugar cane for thousands of years, and it was one of the first plants ever grown by farmers in the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
To get the sugar we use in our kitchens, workers cut down the tall canes and crush the stems in big machines to squeeze out all the sweet juice. Then the juice is boiled in huge pots until the water evaporates and sparkly sugar crystals are left behind! It takes about 10 feet of sugar cane to make just one cup of sugar. Sugar cane is not only used for the sugar in our cookies and candy. It can also be turned into a fuel that powers cars and trucks, and the leftover cane pieces can be made into paper. One single sugar cane plant can keep growing back and be harvested several times before a new one needs to be planted!
