What is Sorghum, Anyway?
Sorghum – a crop originally brought to the U.S. in the 19th century to reduce the country's reliance on sugar imports and plantations – stems from an African grass family that effectively resists drought and has a high heat tolerance. Sorghum molasses was initially concentrated in the Midwest before becoming the predominant crop of the South at the beginning of the 20th century.
Today, it's used as a diverse flavor enhancer that comes in the form of syrups, dressings, and sauces. Most of the modern sweet sorghum product in the United States is based in Kansas and Texas, but it is also cultivated in several other states through the Midwest and South. Danny Townsend, owner of Townsend Sorghum Mill in Kentucky, told us more about how sorghum syrup is produced in the U.S.
How to Make Sorghum Syrup
The Mill has produced sorghum molasses in Jeffersonville, Ky. since the 19th century, and Townsend, the fifth generation of his family to maintain the sweet sorghum tradition, has been running the business since the mid-1980s. The sorghum molasses from Townsend's Mill has twice been voted Sweet Sorghum National Champion.
"We make the syrup from the juice," says Townsend. "We plant the seed [and] grow the stalks. They get anywhere from 10 to 12 feet tall, and when they get mature – which can take anywhere from 100 to 130 days – the juice gets sweet. It's about as sweet as an apple."
Producing sorghum syrup was once a tedious, labor-intensive process performed by hand and with the assistance of a mule, but it is now executed with mechanized equipment that makes it far easier on those harvesting and preparing the product.
"[After] we cut the stalks, we remove the seed head off the top, and then we run them through a mill or a press or a squisher [to] take the juice out," says Townsend. "It takes about 8 gallons of juice to make 1 gallon of sweet sorghum syrup."
More on Sorghum Molasses
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), sweet sorghum must be at least 74 degrees brix, which is the scale for relative density in the winemaking and sugar industries. Brix indicates the percentage of sucrose by grams per 100 milliliter of water in juices and solutions.
"Maple syrup is like 66," says Townsend. "It has to be a certain thickness, and from there it has to be cleaned up. It has to have good clarity, we have to get all the impurities out of it, and of course, there's the taste. According to the USDA, sorghum should be a light amber color, but sometimes it's a little darker. If it's darker, it'll have a little bit of a stronger taste."
One of the most pressing issues in the sorghum syrup industry is the intrusion of blended and imitation sorghum molasses into the market. Because sweet sorghum can be challenging and expensive to produce, some have begun selling molasses or blackstrap molasses mixed with corn syrup under the guise of it being pure sorghum syrup.
"That's illegal," says Townsend. "That's misrepresentation. Pure sorghum contains no additives. Once it comes off the evaporator, that's it – there are no additives. There's a lot of this misbranded, illegal stuff out there on the market, and some of the time it can be a little cheaper than the good stuff. The people who don't know what sorghum is can really be taken in, so we have associations where we promote sorghum and go to state fairs so people know what pure sorghum tastes like."
Garnering Support for Sweet Sorghum
Townsend is the president of the most prominent sorghum molasses organization in the U.S., the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association (NSSPPA), whose main goal is to put an end to imitation sweet sorghum. The NSSPPA was formed in 1985, when sorghum syrup producers gathered for the first time.
"I was a charter member of that meeting," says Townsend. "One of our main objectives was to let people know what pure sorghum was – what it looks like, what it tastes like – and to get the actual producers of sweet sorghum together and talk about the problems they were having, their research, their cooking methods."
The NSSPPA – which Townsend estimates has between 300 to 400 members spread out across more than 30 states – has an annual conference every year that includes competitions.
"We have a banquet on Friday night where they give out the awards," says Townsend. "We try to get everybody the best syrup we can [and look for] any way we can help our producers. There's a lot of good sweet sorghum syrup on the market today."
For those interested in attending the next NSSPPA annual meeting in 2020, it will be taking place in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Townsend stresses that all sorghum syrup producers are welcome, whether they've never made it before or have been doing it for 20 years.
