Sweets from the 11th century to nowadays

When we speak about sweets, we think about something which is conceived almost exclusively for children, but in the beginning they were something that might be described as precious, and could only be bought by rich people. Being mostly made of sugar, a product that in the past only the richest families could afford, sweets were not something that any child could receive.

To briefly tell the story of sweets, we must go back in time to the 11th century, when the Crusaders coming back from the Near East brought back bars of sugar cane that can be seen as the ancestors and first exemplars of the types of sweets that we know nowadays.

Another important phase in the history of sugar, and consequently of sweets, takes place between the 17th and 18th century: with the improvement of the techniques of extraction of sugar from beets it became possible to produce a white product, which was easily soluble and consequently fitter for the production of sweets.

Although the sugar sweets imported from the Holy Land are considered as the first examples of the sweets that now you can find in any specialised shop, it was only after the discovery of America and the consequent development of the cultivation of sugar cane that sugar and sweets began to be more widespread. This diffusion of sugar cane plantations did not correspond to an immediate and exponential increase in the use of sugar, which remained for a long time something expensive and precious that only the well-off could afford. Also the look of sugar, as it was sold, was different: this product, indeed, was not sold as powder, but in more or less conical pats, and the quantity of sugar that was needed was grated from them.

The origin of a real sweets industry was still a long way off, but certainly the first germs had been sowed. The development of the sector was then influenced by the diffusion of cocoa, which found a fruitful ground in some cities more than in other ones. This is the case of Turin, for example, which is known for its tradition in the field of chocolate. In the 18th century the italian city was already one of the most important centres of the sector, and in this city the University of “Confettieri” and “Acquavitai” by permission of King Carlo Emanuele III.

In the 19th century sugar began to be more widespread (but until after the Second World War it was still seen perhaps not as a luxury good, but certainly as something that could not be used daily), and between the 19th and 20th sweets began to be produced in a way that they were not only good to eat, but also nice to see: it was in that period, indeed, that sweets began to be wrapped in special wrappings made of a layer of aluminium foil inside and another layer of coloured paper outside.

In the following years the developments in the field of sweets have been several and varied; sweets, as well as their packaging, have taken many different shapes and colours and have become the joy of all children.