Sugar Symbolism

When it first appeared on the market, refined sugar represented a modern sweetener to Americans. White, highly processed, and purely sweet, refined sugar differed in both flavor and substance from more traditional sweeteners such as honey and maple sugar. Imported from faraway places and produced by strangers, sugar was material evidence of both human triumph over nature and the civilizing forces of colonialism over what were perceived to be savage people. Sugar was a status symbol representing refinement, luxury, and gentility. By the end of the twentieth century, noncaloric chemical sweeteners had taken the place of refined sugar, which by that time seemed an old-fashioned substance. At the same time less refined sugars, such as Sugar in the Raw, the equivalent of early muscovado (unrefined) sugar, assumed a cultural cachet representing something more earthy and natural. Foods that incorporated “old-fashioned” sweeteners such as maple sugar, honey, and molasses also experienced a culinary resurgence.