Chocolates, bars, pralines, delightful marzipans, sweet snacks, small dragees ... it would be hard to imagine a world without sweets, making the hardships of everyday life more pleasant, allowing for a moment of relaxation and delight on the palate.
However, have you ever wondered what is the history of sweets and what path of evolution did they have to go through to get the shapes, forms and flavors we know today?
What came first? Human or cute?
It is difficult to answer this question unequivocally, because the weakness for sweet tastes has been known to mankind since the dawn of time. It can be said with certainty that the history of sweets is as old as the history of man.
So what were the first sweets our ancestors enjoyed? First of all, it was honey and fruit (also dried fruit) - known and liked to this day. These two delicacies were especially loved in Ancient Egypt (the pharaohs took honey with them even to the afterlife, as evidenced by archaeological excavations today). Apart from fruit, the Egyptians also dried the pods of locusts (making them, also known to this day, carob).
The Greeks had similar tastes - they used honey to create sweetness, coating fruit, nuts or even flowers in it. Their neighbors, the Romans, were once again fond of ancient candy, which they readily purchased from Arab merchants. Their production consisted in cooking cloves, ginger and anise seeds in melted sugar.
The complicated fate of sugar
If anyone thought that Homer's return home, known from the Odyssey, was a long and arduous journey, he will change his mind when he learns how long and arduous the sugar journey to Europe was. Yes - sugar, one of the most important ingredients used in the production of sweets for centuries ... was not known or available to many Europeans.
Although it is not a new invention: it was created around 500 BC in India, from sugar cane, which first had to come from the region of Indonesia. From India, the sugar production technology went to Arab countries, who quickly and permanently adopted it (to this day, sweets produced in this part of the world are characterized by an extremely sweet taste). And although the Romans bought their sweet candies from the Arabs, they did not produce sugar themselves. Like the Crusaders, who first encountered sugar only in the 11th century in Jerusalem!
The problem with sugar production in Europe was that the European climate was not conducive to sugar cane farming, and therefore sugar was an imported and therefore a luxury commodity. It was only in 1880 that the production of sugar from beet was developed, so it became possible in Europe. This does not mean, however, that sugar immediately became cheap and common. Although it was valued for its "comforting" qualities (and even considered a remedy for strength), it did not become immediately available everywhere.
In Poland at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, sugar prices were still incredibly high, and the product itself was not popular, especially among the impoverished, after the May coup, the society.
A curiosity about sugar, dating back to the early Middle Ages, is the way in which, with the help of sugar, the Arab caliphs tried to impress their guests. They showed them figurines and models made of sugar. They must have made an impression on foreign visitors as their popularity grew rapidly and in Europe they became a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Yes! That's where the sugar lambs in the Easter Święcące came from!
Sweets in the darkness of the Middle Ages
The beginnings of the Middle Ages did not bring about a big change in the sweet menu of the magnates (let's face it - they mostly enjoyed these delicacies). Every day, on the Byzantine table of Emperor Constantine VII, Porphyrogenes landed jams and jellies made of fruit - quince, plum, rose or pear. However, ordinary medieval citizens were not so lucky.
In the course of time, there was a threat of forgetting sweets over medieval Europe! The case was saved by the Italians (and as we know, they like "sweet life"), and precisely Venice and Genoa began to become the capitals of European confectionery. He has his merits here, among others Julius Dragatus, a confectioner, who started to produce the first… dragees, based on a recipe of candies that the ancient Romans bought from Arabs. One of the theses says that it was his name that gave the name of these popular delicacies until today.
A sweet revival
The Renaissance era was conducive not only to science, art and architecture, but was also an era exceptionally successful for sweets! Europeans have not only succeeded in refining the methods of refining sugar from cane sugar. Long journeys, fueled by curiosity and the desire to discover new lands, resulted in the fact that a real treasure reached Europe - cocoa beans!
Central and South American Indians used it to make an infusion called "the drink of the gods", which helped to give birth to chocolate so much loved today. But that's not the end of the sweet Renaissance revolution! While cocoa came to Europe from overseas, then from Turkey to Hungary came… marzipan! This delicacy, made of ground almond mass, quickly won the hearts of Hungarian rulers, and later of regulars of other European courts.
An interesting anecdote tells that the king of Hungary, Maciej Korwin, even used to play chess with figures made of marzipan. The winner of the party received the privilege of eating them. Can you think of a better sweet motivation for the game?
The beginning of the chocolate age
Although cocoa reached Europe during the Renaissance, it took several centuries again to produce products that resemble today's chocolate delicacies. Of course, in the beginning, chocolate was a luxury reserved mainly for magnates.
Chocolate appeared on the tables of Western Europe faster, from where it slowly made its way to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It began to appear in Poland at the beginning of the 18th century, and its great lover was August II the Strong of the Saxon dynasty - it was during his time that the first cafe was established in Poland (at that time, cafes were associated with a place not only for serving coffee, but also chocolate. ). With time, more cafes appeared, and chocolate could be purchased at a pharmacy as a "good mood".
However, the development of the Polish chocolate industry had to wait over 100 years, and more precisely until 1851, when Karol Wedel opened his own confectionery shop at 12 Miodowa Street in Warsaw. There was his own factory next to the shop: "Parowa Fabryka Czekolady p.f. C. E. Wedel ”. Initially, Wedel produced cream caramels and the first chocolate products, which quickly became a hit among the inhabitants of the capital. Another revolution in Poland came in 1955, when Wedel imported a special machine from Paris that enabled the production of drinking chocolate!
The birth of chocolate bars
The nineteenth century also brought us the birth of a product that we cannot imagine our life without - chocolate bars. The first ones were made in the Netherlands in 1891, in the Kwatta factory. As it usually happens, the development and new inventions are driven by war and the military. Kwatt bars were produced especially for the garrison in Breda under the name "Maneuver Chocolaad" and quickly became a real hit among soldiers who strengthened not only in barracks but also on battlefields during World War I. Until today, the Dutch associate the packaging well with the characteristic drawing of a toy soldier, and the word Kwatta itself was a synonym for a chocolate bar until recently.
Many of us consider popular bars to be quite a recent invention. Nothing could be more wrong! The beginning of the 20th century is the moment of creating many products that we know very well today. In 1908, the Swiss Toblerone chocolate was created, in 1923 - Milky Way, in 1930 - Mars and Snickers, and in 1935 - probably the most popular bar in the world, KitKat.
Twix, which is popular today, is a relatively young creation - it was not born in Great Britain until 1967. In Poland, in the interwar period, Ptasie Mleczko was established (you will not guess - in the Wedel factory!), Which is slowly gaining more and more popularity all over the world, and no less popular - fudge.
As you can see, sweets have been with mankind for a long time, and most amazingly - many of their forms (honey, dried fruit, dragees) have not changed since ancient times.
Well… sweetening one's life seems to be inscribed in human nature. And although today the world is struggling with excessive sugar consumption, one should not give up sweets - it is important to simply eat them within reason. To the delight of your own palate. In fact, one could say that eating sweets is cultivating the centuries-old tradition of our ancestors!
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