Thursday, November 26, 2009

Sugarhouse Brown Sugar Candy


When I was a kid and wanted something sweet, I would sometimes nibble just a little brown sugar from a teaspoon. I loved the flavor, but you could so quickly get too much both from the intense sweetness and the heavy molasses flavor. Like salt, sugar is one of those things that, when used in the right amount, is a thing of great beauty, but too much is a disaster. I wish I could say that the Sugarhouse brown sugar candy was a thing of beauty, but it's definitely more of a train wreck.


When I bought this at an upscale market called "Queen's Isetan" for about 140 yen (about $1.45), I was lured by the resemblance to fudge that the picture on the front had. You'd think that this is a mistake that I'd stop making after so many years in Japan. Things here are not what they resemble back home. The bottom line is that this is little more than hydrated, formed blocks of brown sugar. The taste is just like those teaspoons of brown sugar I'd nibble at as a child. It's intensely sweet and overbearing, and can only appeal to people who like to eat sugar straight from the bag. If that sort of thing appeals to you, you can stick this packet in your pocket (which is one of its selling points) and put away 362 calories of brown sugar nastiness.

I tried to do some research on the company that made this, Sugarhouse, but they are too small-time to even have their own web site. The only thing I could find were a lot of references to the location of the company through various mapping web sites. I'm not sure what else they make besides this candy, but I hope they've got something else going for them because I can't imagine this is going to be a success for them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the healthy written on the bag.

Orchid64 said...

I was thinking when I bought this that calling brown sugar "healthy" seems very strange! I know that brown sugar is better for you than white, but sugar in general isn't seen as all that healthy!

Thank you for your comment! :-)