Sugar confusion

[bunnyjadwiga]

Why is it that so many people are so convinced that beet sugar (invented in the Napoleonic era) is *more* ancient and specifically medieval than cane sugar (the original form of sugar)? Why do people think that cane sugar was not available in the middle ages and renaissance?

What can we do to combat this?

Comments

[snooness2]

Because I can buy beet sugar in my grocery store, and I'd have to go looking for cane sugar.
Besides beets=sugar
(this is my sarcastic voice)

Non-sacrastically:
It's because people really don't understand agriculture anymore, let alone pre-industrial agriculture.
I just finished pointing out to someone that honey would potentially contain beeswax if it's not refined like what you buy in the store. (Arguh!)
Though 1590 - beetroot syurp extraction. Industral scale 1801.

[landverhuizer.livejournal.com]

amusingly, I found it far easier to find cane sugar most of my life. Funny thing was, that when I first tried beet sugar, sometime in my 20's, I thought the sugar in the store was stored funny or something happened to it... until I noticed this new brand was beet sugar :-O :-O

[snooness2]

I live in the land where beet sugar is more common then cane sugar (about 4 hours away from one of the major processing centers for sugar beets).
;)
It does taste very different, and I find it weird going to places where cane sugar is more commonly used... all the processed foods and drinks taste odd. Not a bad odd, but odd none the less.