Sugar

• Type: Foodstuff, Potion Ingredient

Sugar is a common sweet-tasting, crystalline substance used as a foodstuff and ingredient by both the wizarding and Muggle communities. In the wizarding world, it appears in various forms, most commonly as:

• Granulated Sugar: Fine crystals used for sweetening beverages like tea and coffee, and in general baking.
• Sugar Lumps: Cubes of compressed granulated sugar, often served alongside hot drinks. Albus Dumbledore notably offers them to Professor McGonagall at Number Four, Privet Drive.
• Spun Sugar: Used in the creation of delicate confections, such as the spun-sugar roses seen at the Yule Ball.
• Icing Sugar: A powdered form used for frostings and icings on cakes and biscuits.

Sugar is a ubiquitous substance in the wizarding world, primarily valued for its role in food and social customs rather than for any inherent magical properties.

• Sweetener: It is most frequently used to sweeten beverages. Offering someone a cup of tea with sugar is a common gesture of hospitality and comfort, seen at locations like The Burrow, Hogwarts, and 12 Grimmauld Place.
• Confectionery: Sugar is the foundational ingredient for the vast majority of sweets found in the wizarding world. The inventory of Honeydukes sweetshop, including Fizzing Whizbees, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Jelly Slugs, relies heavily on sugar.
• Baking and Desserts: It is a key ingredient in numerous desserts and baked goods enjoyed by wizards, such as Treacle Tart (Harry Potter's favorite), Cauldron Cakes, rock cakes, and birthday cakes. The Hogwarts house-elves make extensive use of it in the Hogwarts Kitchens.
• Potion Ingredient: While not a primary magical component, sugar is sometimes included in Potions, likely to improve their taste or as a preservative. For example, Hagrid mentions that a stomach-soothing potion tastes of peppermint and sugar. (Pottermore)
• Preservation: In the form of Crystallized pineapple or other candied fruits, sugar acts as a preservative. This is a favorite treat of Professor Slughorn, who keeps a supply for special guests.

• The Dursleys' Dieting: In Harry's third and fourth years, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon place Dudley Dursley on a strict diet, drastically cutting his sugar and fat intake after his Smeltings school uniform is too small. This becomes a source of tension in the household.
• Comfort and Care: Chocolate, a sugary sweet, is famously prescribed by Madam Pomfrey and Remus Lupin as a first-response remedy to the chilling effects of a Dementor encounter, providing a quick energy boost and sense of well-being.
• Social Rituals: The act of adding sugar to tea is a recurring motif during meetings of the Order of the Phoenix and visits with characters like Andromeda Tonks, highlighting moments of normalcy and social bonding amidst conflict.
• Slughorn's Indulgences: Professor Horace Slughorn's affinity for sugary luxuries like Crystallized pineapple is a key character trait, symbolizing his taste for the finer things in life and his method of rewarding favored students.
• Dolores Umbridge: The cloyingly sweet aesthetic of Dolores Umbridge's office, with its fluffy pink decor and kitten plates, is matched by her habit of adding a large amount of sugar to her tea, reflecting her superficially sweet but deeply malicious nature.