pure form. Because it’s much less sweet than
table sugar, manufacturers use it much as they
do the sugar alcohols (p. 662), more for its
physical bulk than for its sweetness.
The Complexities
of Sweetness
There’s more to the sweetness of sugars than
the sensation of sweetness pure and simple.
Sweetness helps mask or balance both
sourness and bitterness from other
ingredients. And flavor chemists have shown
that it has a strong enhancing effect on our
perception of food aromas, perhaps by
signaling the brain that the food is a good
energy source and therefore deserves special
attention.
Different sugars give different impressions
of sweetness. Sucrose takes some time to be
detected on the tongue, and its sweetness
lingers. By comparison, the sweetness of