While reading Sweetness and power by Sidney W. Mintz, I began to think a lot about where everything comes from and how it began to be. Like how did they know that they could produce sugar and make it into something different. If I looked at a sugar cane, I would not know what to do with it. But while reading this I can now better understand the importance of the Sugar Industry (I guess you could say) during the time period. It also got me thinking about the different types of sugar and the different uses along with the different sources.
It is no hidden fact that I love Pirate of the Caribbean, which could have possibly influenced my decision to take this course. So I thought maybe a little connection to that and the East India Company that was mentioned in Mintz book. It seems to all begin with Tea. Everyone loves Tea, the Brits, China, American Southerners and many other cultures. So with growth and production of sugar cane came the production of Rum, sweet chocolate, and tea (which would be recommended with a lump or two of sugar). The trade industry was booming with different goods being imported and exported from far off places such as China and England.
But on another note aside from trade, I will go back to my original statement of sugar and the different types. You have to have the right types of climate and terrain to be able to produce sugar, which I have never really thought of. but how did they discover the uses for the different sugars. Like brown sugar, in my opinion, greatly under-utilized. I would eat that stuff by the spoon full while making Ginger Bread Cookies. Now that I am on cooking. Think about how the world would be without sugar in cooking, such as pastries, and any dessert really. Sure the world would probably be alot healtier and slimmer, but the taste of everything is just improved.
I really don't know if I am even doing this post right but put an ADD person on a laptop with sugar and the Caribbean on her mind and she can go off and start talking about the game candy land so I'll stop myself now.
I was interested in Mintz's writing on the British consumption of sugar and how it went from a sweetened weak tea for the poor, to be added to a broad range of dishes. Turbinado is one of many golden brown sugars that is still exported from the caribbean today.
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DeleteUpon some further reflection, and fast forwarding a bit, (from my earlier post) I am struck by the impact of the Black Death and the role of sugar. Mintz quotes geographer J.H. Galloway stating that "Indeed in his opinion, it was the expanded use of slave labor to compensate for plague-connected mortality that initiated the strange and enduring relationship between sugar and slavery"(29)
ReplyDeleteHaving mostly known about the Black Death through visual art and literature, these perspectives shed a new light on this time for me.