sugar, sugar...

White sugar is not only bad for your health; it is processed through animal bone char. So as a vegan, your best bet with your sugars is to get to as close to organic as possible. Organic is not 100% safe, but it is the safest for all our foods. You're avoiding the organic meats and diary. You can still eat organic fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, carbs and sugars.
With this said, there are many good sugars out there so that your foods and drinks are not bland tasting. Stevia is grown right from the plant in Africa and is extracted from the leaves. A lot of people have trouble with the bitter taste. If you are one of those people, there are other good vegan sweeteners out there.
There is organic Florida Crystals. I use this sweetener myself and it is very good. You can order it at www.floridacrystals.com. You can also get organic cane, brown or turbinado sugars. Sugar in The Raw, is another good one that I use. It has organic turbinado sugar in the ingredients.

Some of you like to use the Agave Nectar for sweeteners. This is good for vegans, too. It's got organic and all natural ingredients in it.
On your maple syrups, check the labels very carefully because they sometimes drip animal lard in there, after the boiling process. Plus it may not be listed in the ingredients. This is because to produce maple syrup, the sap has to be collected and then boiled down. To avoid this, look for the organic or kosher label on the bottle. If you don't have those, call the company to confirm that they used vegetable base defoamers, instead.
You get 100% maple syrup from Vermont. Grown from the mother ground. The sap is animal fat free and they used vegetable base defoamers to boil it down.
Other good vegan syrups are Malt Barley, Sweet Cloud Organic Brown Rice, and Maple Valley.
All of these sugars and syrups do not have emulsifiers in them, which are very unhealthy and cause you to gain wait. Plus they cause your glucose levels to go batty. They aide in bringing on diabetes or hypoglycemia. They are put into foods to stimulate your stomach hormones to increase sales. Always avoid emulsifiers at all cost. They are fructose, high fructose, corn syrup and muti-dextrin.
Plus these sweeteners and syrups are also good for diabetics. Please check with your doctors first and use in moderation.