| 6000 BC |
Sugar cane is already known in eastern Asia,
from where it spreads to India and Persia. |
| 600 BC |
The Persians develop a sugar processing
method: hot sugar cane juice is poured into conical clay or
wooden vessels. Substances that do not contain sugar drip through
an opening at the tip of the cone in the form of a syrup, leaving
behind the crystallising sugar compound. Sugar loaf is the result. |
| 1100 |
Central Europeans experience sugar for the
first time thanks to the Crusades. An account of a voyage contains
the following sentence: "In the fields of the plain at
Tripoli we found a honey reed, which the inhabitants call 'zucra'".
Initial imports bring sugar to Europe, where it quickly becomes
very popular among kings and princes. |
From about
1500 |
Sugar cane is cultivated in large plantations
worldwide and is shipped to Europe. Sugar is still an expensive
commodity. |
| 1747 |
Andreas Sigismund Marggraf discovers that
the field mangel contains the same amount of sugar as sugar
cane. |
| 1801 |
After Marggraf's pupil and successor Franz
Carl Achard processes sugar from beets for the first time, the
world's first factory for producing beet sugar is built at Cunern/Silesia. |
From about
1850 |
The competition between cane and beet sugar
causes a drastic fall in price and sugar becomes an everyday
commodity. |
