this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Most sugar consumed in Europe is from sugarcane.

Most sugar produced in Europe is from sugarbeets, but that production is still less than the imported sugar from sugarcane (because sugarcane is just vastly more productive).

They didn't extract sugar from sugar beet back in the 14th century. In fact only in 1747 was it discovered that beets had sucrose and sugar beets themselves were only created after that, via selective breeding, so I don't think they had sugar as we know it back then. However as somebody else pointed out, they had honey which has a very high concentration of sugar.

I suspected sugar wasn't extracted from sugar beet in the Middle Ages or earlier but I wasn't sure and prompted by your question I went searching for it and indeed that is the case since sugar beets didn't even exist back then.