The History of Sweets

Paul Chrystal

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781526778857
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526778888
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Culinary Arts

A chronicle of confectionaries throughout the centuries—from honeycombs to Haribo. "There is much to get your teeth into within these pages." —Best of British Magazine
 
We all remember sweets—objects of pure delight and the endless cause of squabbles, fights even, hoarding and swapping; a chance to gorge, suck, crunch, and chew. But they're by no means just a nostalgic thing of days past, and it's not only children who love and devour sweets—gobstoppers, bulls eyes, licorice, seaside rock, bubble gum, and the like; grown-ups of all ages are partial to a good humbug, or a lemon sherbet or two—in the car, (annoyingly) at the cinema or while out walking—wherever and whenever, the sweet is there, the sweet delivers and the sweet rarely disappoints.
 
Sweets then are ubiquitous and enduring; they cross age, culture, and gender boundaries and they have been around, it seems, forever. This book tells the story of sweets from their primitive beginnings to their place today as a billion-pound commodity with its sophisticated, seductive packaging and sales, advertising and marketing. It explores the people's favorites, past and present; but there is also a dark side to sweets—and this book does not shy away from the deleterious effect on health as manifested in obesity, tooth decay, and diabetes. It delves into sweet and candy shops in supermarkets and markets, retro sweet shops, fudge makers, vintage sweets online, sweet manufacturing, chocolate, the grey line between sweets and "medicines" ancient and modern. It goes round the world unwrapping sweets from different countries and cultures and it examines how immigrants from all nations have changed our own sweet world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the author
• Book Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 A Sweet Timeline
• Chapter 2 How it all Started: Honey, Fruit and Nuts in Downtown Cairo?
• Chapter 3 The Rise and Rise of Sugar
• Chapter 4 ‘A Spoonful of Sugar…’:Sweets as Spurious Medicine
• Chapter 5 Cultural Issues: Rationing, Racism,Smoking Sweets, Women’s Rights
• Chapter 6 Sugar and Slavery
• Chapter 7 Poisoning Sweets: Adulteration
• Chapter 8 Special Sweets: Liquorice, Chewing Gum, Rock, Candy Floss, Gobstoppers, Jelly Babies, Dolly Mixtures …
• Chapter 9 Chocolate’s History
• Chapter 10 The Quakers and Chocolate
• Chapter 11 The Quaker Triumvirate
• Chapter 12 Chocolate Manufacturers in the United Kingdom
• Chapter 13 Marketing Chocolate and Sweets
• Chapter 14 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
• Chapter 15 The Dark Side of the Sweet: Obesity, Diabetes, Bad Teeth, and Choking to Death
• Chapter 16 Twenty-one Sweets from Around the World
• Chapter 17 Some UK Sweet Manufacturers
• Chapter 18 ‘The Oldest Sweet Shop’, Pateley Bridge, the Star Rock Shop, Kirriemuir, and Jubilee Confectioners, Beamish
• Chapter 19 Quotable Sweets
• Chapter 20 Sweets in Music & Literature: ‘taking candy from a baby’ …
• Chapter 21 The Future: Fairtrade, Healthand the Internet
• Appendix I Some Forgettable Brand Names
• Appendix II Sweet Places to Visit
• Further Reading
• Index
• Back cover