527. Brachos on Soup and Sugar

Brachos 8:4

If one cooks vegetables that are often cooked, he recites Borei pri ho’adamah on the soup that is produced because this soup is considered like the vegetables themselves. This is only the case when one cooks them in order to drink the soup. Shehakol is recited over the honey of dates. Nevertheless, if one crushes dates manually, removes the pits and makes them into a dough-like substance, the bracha is Borei pri ho’eitz beforehand and the bracha that includes the three themes of bentching (i.e., al ho’eitz) after.

Brachos 8:5

If the sap of sugar cane is removed and cooked until it crystallizes, most authorities say its bracha is Borei pri ho’adamah, though others say that the bracha Borei pri ho’eitz should be recited. Similarly, they say that if a person sucks sugar cane, he should recite Borei pri ho’adamah. The Rambam, however, maintains that the sugar is not a fruit and the bracha of shehakol should be recited. The "honey" of sugar cane has been changed by fire, therefore it should not be given higher status than date honey, which was not changed by fire yet takes the bracha of shehakol.