Prepare a branched alcohol-based sugar surfactant by: (a) providing an ether alcohol and a fully acetylated sugar where the ether alcohol has the structure of Structure (I); (b) coupling the ether alcohol with the acetylated sugar in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst to form a branched glucoside acetate; and (c) deprotecting the glucoside acetate by removing the acetate moieties and replacingthem with hydrogen atoms in the presence of a base to form a surfactant having the structure (II).