The Penny Candy Curse
Over 125 years ago, sweet little treats helped launch America’s sugar addiction
Candy is an ancient invention — honey was added to seeds, nuts and fruit by the early Egyptians and Greeks to create sweet confections.
But in the United States, “penny candy” — the first candy designed just for kids — hooked American youngsters on sugar. It proved to be an addiction they grew up with that lasted into adulthood and was passed from generation to generation.
Sugar everywhere
Of course, the sugar addiction didn’t all start with candy. In the 1500s, cane sugar came to South America and by the 1600s, sugar production was entrenched in the Caribbean. Eventually, sugar was produced in North America; by then, it had fallen in price and availability from a luxury for the rich to a desirable commodity for the general population.
Sugar was everywhere: From the mid-18th Century to the early 19th Century, sugar was Great Britain’s most treasured import and it was considered the most valuable commodity in European trade.
In the United States, sugarcane cultivation and refining first started in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 18th Century. By the middle of the 19th Century, Louisiana was producing up to half of the sugar for the United…
