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This was done by the Indigenous people of Papua New Guinea. They would chew on the sugarcane sticks raw.
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Sugarcanes makes its way by ship to the Philippines and India and is cultivated by the Austronesians in around 3000 BCE
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Greeks and Romans learn about sugar during visits to India. Nearchus, Alexandria’s general, describes the sugar like “a reed in India that brings forth honey without the help of bees, from which an intoxicating drink is made, though the plant bears no fruit.” Small amounts are brought back to the Mediterranean and traded to physicians who use it for medical purposes.
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Sugarcane is first refined in India. The first description of a sugar mill is found in this time period in an Indian text.
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The Greek and Roman civilizations used sugar to treat indigestion and stomach ailments.
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Sugar crystalizes for the first time in India during the Gupta dynasty. -
Sugar reaches Persia and China and they both begin cultivating it.
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The Arabs become extremely proficient at harvesting, processing and using sugar. They invent the dessert Marzipan.
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Primarily in Sicily and Spain.
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Bringing with them what they called 'sweet salt'
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The Spanish colonize the Canary Islands, setting up sugar plantations and mills. In 1493, Columbus brings sugar cane from the Canary Islands to Hispañola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). By 1516, Hispañiola is the most important sugar producer in the New World.
A new mill design in Portugal that could be powered by animals, water, or even wind, and a new method for refining sugar that allows them to operate on a larger scale. Brazilian sugar production eventually dominates the industry. -
Coffee, tea, and chocolate are now in Europe. Their arrival drastically increases sugar consumption.
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German chemist Andreas Marggraf finds and extracts sugar from beetroots.
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The largest and most technologically advanced sugar refinery in the world opens in Williamsburg on Long Island. Increased efficiency in producing sugar drives the costs down.
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The first artificial sweetener saccharin is made by a graduate student called Hopkins.
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The mechanization of sugar cane cultivation began when 16 whole stalk harvesters were successfully used to harvest cane in Louisiana in 1938, and by 1946
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Sugar beet and sugar cane yields continue to improve with modern varieties of the plants and advances in agricultural technology.
