shipment to England that we know of came in
- At first, Europeans treated sugar the
way they treated pepper, ginger, and other
exotic imports, as a flavoring and a medicine.
In medieval Europe, sugar was used in two
general sorts of preparations: preserved fruits
and flowers, and small medicinal morsels.
Sweets, or candy, began not as little
entertaining treats but as “confections” (from
the Latin conficere, “to put together,” “to
prepare”) composed by the apothecaries, or
druggists, to balance the body’s principles.
Sugar served several medicinal purposes. Its
sweetness covered the bitterness of some
drugs and made all preparations more
pleasant. Its meltability and stickiness made it
a good vehicle for mixing and carrying other
ingredients. The solidity of a fused mass of
sugar meant that it could release its medicine
slowly and gradually. And its own supposed
effect on the body — encouraging both heat
and moisture — was thought to balance the