Sugar

Overview

Sugar brews the Potion of Swiftness, and Swiftness II is the cheapest movement upgrade in the game — 40% faster on foot for a few minutes from a crop that grows itself. That alone justifies a sugar cane farm, and sugar cane is the easiest thing in Minecraft to automate: it grows on sand or dirt beside water with no tending, and an observer and a piston harvest it the moment it reaches full height. One cane makes one sugar. Beyond potions, sugar goes into Pumpkin Pie, Cake and the Fermented Spider Eye that unlocks the corrupted potion branch, which means a sugar farm feeds three separate systems at once. It is also the ingredient that makes the difference between a brewing stand you use occasionally and one you use constantly, because Swiftness is the potion players actually drink day to day. Build the farm early, run it wide rather than tall, and the surplus paper from the same cane covers maps, books and fireworks. The farm takes ten minutes to build and repays that within the first harvest, which is why almost every established base has one running.

Brewing Swiftness potions, baking cake and pumpkin pie, and making fermented spider eyes — three separate chains from one automated crop. All three chains run off one automated crop.

In Minecraft, Sugar is a brewing item. A full stack holds 64. It drops from Witch.

You make it with Honey Bottle. Its crafting uses are Cake, Fermented Spider Eye, and Pumpkin Pie.

How to get it

Craft 1 from 1 sugar cane. Cane grows on sand, dirt or moss beside water and regrows to 3 blocks tall on its own, so a 20-plant farm produces stacks per in-game day.

Tips

Harvest only the top two blocks of a cane; leaving the bottom means it regrows without replanting.
An observer facing the third block with a piston beneath is the standard fully automatic cane farm.
The same cane makes paper, so one farm covers maps, books, fireworks and brewing at once.
Swiftness II from glowstone is short but fast; extend with redstone instead when you are travelling.