суббота, 8 января 2011 г.
A Short History of Confectionery
By Barry Hornwhistle
What we know today as sweets have actually only been around since the 19th century. In truth, we’ve always had a sweet tooth – honey has been eaten for many centuries, and those who lived in the Middle Ages were fond of a number of sweet – yet expensive – foods.
Indeed, early in the history of “sweet foods”, the poor very rarely ate anything sweet unless it was flavoured with honey – it was only the rich who could pay for sweet food. The French loved their nougat in the 17th century, and let’s not forget how much the Spanish loved chocolate when they happened upon it in South America. Chocolate did much to sweeten the collective teeth of Europeans, as it spread like wildfire throughout the continent. It was not, though, until the 19th century that Europeans decided to eat chocolate – it was a drink. Not just hot chocolate as we know and love it today, but a rich, smooth drink that was drunk like an espresso – and still is today if you visit Italy.
However, it was the industrial revolution – and cheaper sugar – that brought about the sweets we know and love today. The fact that sweets were no longer handmade meant that they could be mass-produced in factories, and the very first sweets included boiled sweets, marshmallows, and one of the very earliest was Turkish delight. This switch from handmade to factory-made therefore switched the “sweet audience” over to the poor all of a sudden – they were available en masse to the public for the first time.
Seaside rock was invented towards the end of the 19th century, along with Jelly Babies, liquorice allsorts and that fairground favourite, Candy Floss. Gradually, these treats began to be associated with holidays. The Easter Egg was invented – proving that the association between Easter and Chocolate is nothing historical at all – and the 20th century saw an explosion in chocolate-based confectionery.
Crisps are a relative newcomer to the market, having only been sold for the first time in 1960. Today, crisps and sweets are everywhere, crowding supermarkets and high streets alike, as old-fashioned retro sweet shops line up in towns around the country. Even with the demise of Woolworths in the UK, the Pick n Mix still proves incredibly popular. As Health professionals continue to make inroads into popular consciousness, the place of the sweet in the UK is increasingly focusing on nostalgia – nostalgia for the sweets of youth and the times associated with them. This has meant that chocolate bars from the 1970s and 1980s have suddenly started appearing, partly thanks to Facebook campaigns, and mostly thanks to astute marketers.
Today, Pick’n'Mix merchants are shifting online – with a greater access to a wider range of sweets, people are attracted by the possibilities and the greater focus on what they want. One thing is for sure, though – that our sweet tooth is not going away for some time yet.
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Barry writes for SweetieSweets, where you can buy sweets online: http://sweetiesweets.co.uk
Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com
Permalink: http://www.submityourarticle.com/a.php?a=139858
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