Sweet, Sweet

the memories you gave to me.
-Dean Martin


I was making a cup of tea this morning when I started thinking about how much I like the flavor of honey. It has a rich sweet taste with a slight peppery finish that I find very appealing. I'm a fan of small local honey makers as they do not overheat their honey which affects the flavor. Most store brand honeys are treated this way and you really can tell the difference. Store brand honeys are not as sweet as unheated honeys and they have what I can only describe as a flat taste to them. They also have a thinner consistency when compared to unheated honey and run over the sides of your spoon  as you pour.

Anyway, that got me thinking about sweeteners in general and so I decided to list the ones I eat in favorite order.


1. Honey
You already know why I like it.




2. Maple Syrup

I grew up eating Log Cabin Maple Syrup and it wasn't until I was an adult that I found out it wasn't really maple syrup at all. It is a "maple blended syrup" containing only 2% maple syrup. I think the major ingredient was corn syrup.



So imagine my surprise when I first tasted real maple syrup. It was as different in taste as orange soda is to fresh squeezed orange juice and I was hooked.




3. Cane Sugar

It still surprises me how different tea made with sugar is from tea made with honey. It's still sweet, it's just that sugar doesn't have the rich flavor of honey.  Still, even with that flaw I like sugar. Sugar come in two forms, cane sugar and beet sugar. I prefer the taste of cane sugar over beet sugar. It taste sweeter to me and sometimes beet sugar has an faint unpleasant odor to it.




3. Beet Sugar

Still a much better choice than high fructose corn syrup.




4. High Fructose Corn Syrup

What can I say about high fructose corn syrup that hasn't been said before?