A Historic View of Candy Part 1

Sugar Plantation, Louisiana

June is national candy month. The ingredient of most candies is of course sugar. As a food historian when I think of sugar I think of slavery in places such as Louisiana, Florida, Cuba, and Brazil to name a few regions of the Americas. The demand for sugar led to massive demographic changes in Africa and the Americas. Sugar is a topic that Anthropologist Sidney Mintz has studied and written about in his book Sweetness and Power. It's an excellent book on the topic that will change the way you look at candy. Golden syrup or treacle was/ is a product that comes from the drippings accumulated from the vats used in sugar refining. Treacle has been used in candy recipes for centuries. 

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