Confectionery

Confectionery is the generic term for all foods composed mainly of sugar. While its history is connected closely to the process of industrialization and nineteenth-century changes in taste, the history of sugar and sweetness began much earlier. Sugar—in the sense we are familiar with today—goes back to the early Middle Ages and the Arab occupation of Spain (700–1492). “Sugar,” says the most prominent sugar historian, Sidney W. Mintz, “followed Koran” (1985, 25). Looking at the history of the Americas, it is also true to say “sugar followed Christianity,” because it was the Christian conquerors who first introduced sugar plants to the continent in the early sixteenth century. Up until the nineteenth century, world sugar consumption depended on growing sugar on plantations; and this was combined mostly with exploitation, child and slave labor, and a worldwide division of labor. Sugarcane plantations in, for [Page 230]example, Brazil or the Caribbean produced only the raw sugar that was then shipped to the metropoles. These not only held the monopoly on refining sugar but also constructed and delivered all the necessary machines and instruments for the production of sugar. The only colonies that refined sugar and distilled rum for themselves were the English ones in North America—perhaps a first hint of their move toward independence.

In early modern times, sugar was a luxury good. It entered the tastes and recipe books of the rich during the sixteenth century. At this time, its main use was not for the production of confectionery, but as a spice or preservative. Sugar was also a main component of medicine: sugar sweetened otherwise bitter pills and liquids. The etymology of confectionery traces back to the Latin word confectionaris originally used to designate a pharmacist.

Sugar was not the only sweetener during that epoch. The common people obtained their sweet flavors from fruit or honey. However, by the end of the eighteenth century, sugar consumption had already increased dramatically and reached thirteen pounds per capita in Great Britain. The triumphal procession of sugar and confectionery through the nineteenth century was accompanied by other profound changes in diet and taste, and it is connected to the history of chocolate and cocoa. Cocoa entered Europe as a luxury drink when Hernán Cortés brought it back from the Aztec Empire. However, it only met European tastes when mixed with sugar or other ingredients. In early modern times, cocoa became increasingly prominent as a luxury drink at the European courts. Due to its nutritional value, it also gained popularity among ordinary people as a medical treatment. Chocolate for eating instead of drinking was a product of the early nineteenth century.

Napoleon's continental blockade of England in 1806 interrupted the distribution of raw cane sugar from the colonies. Continental manufacturers started to invest in extracting sugar from sugar beets—something that had not been profitable before. This was the time in which a new professional group started to play an important role in the processing of modern food: the food chemists. They were the ones who defined national standards for chocolate and other confectionery at the end of the nineteenth century.

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