I've always found the "tastes like sugar because it's made from sugar" slogan awfully disingenuous. I mean, yes, it does taste like sugar, and it is made with sugar, but it's a chlorinated sugar compound. The fact that it's safe and tastes like sugar rather than say, rat poison, was hardly a foregone conclusion, and was only discovered in the first place due to a lab mistake that could easily have featured in an obituary. On the other hand, there's no reason a compound made using tar needs to taste bad. In terms of elements, there's nothing in tar that isn't in sugar (at least in significant quantities, provided the tar is clean.)

Also, dextrose is a naturally occurring sugar.