Sweet Riffs

We Americans perhaps prize the taste of sweetness above any other. After all, our evolutionary schema delineated a survival-linked preference for sweet foods. Those calories fuel the fire.

And sweetness is a big deal these days. Just look at the Pandora’s box of obesity (excess calories, insufficient fire), and the whole systemic demonization of high-fructose corn syrup. As I mentioned the other day, good-ol’ sugar is likely poised for a serious stint in the sun again—that is, if the numbers crunch out in processors’ favor. Not that dropping sugar in place of HFCS will do anything for obesity... Do the math folks...

Nevertheless, we love magic bullets. Back in the 1950s, when faced with a potential quick fix to the pound-packing sweetness paradox, we showed we were happy to begin accepting—and eventually craving—a bit of bitterness with the sweet in artificial sweeteners. In deference to my Tab-chiding teenage years, come maturity I actually developed a fondness for the taste and flavor of the stuff (well, specifically for Diet Coke ... these things seem very relative to each individual...).

Of course, the great artificial sweetener war escalated with the mass introduction of stevia-based sweeteners in recent months—something that has nothing artificial about it. Hard to argue with the natural-food clout of a plant derived extract (although I’m sure people will try...).

I even received a sample pack of “The Natural Sweeteners Your Patrons Want” skewed toward foodservice in the mail a short while ago, which bundles tabletop packets of classic turbinado sugar, evaporated cane juice and stevia—the “natural” side of the equation, now complemented with a zero-calorie option. The tabletop market is particularly active, what with the alternately ardent sucralose, saccharin and aspartame folks tossed into the multicolored mix, as noted by a piece in today’s New York Times.

Collectively, these commingled tangents should make for quite a sweet, hot summer.