Sugar in Jane Austin's time.....

Sugar in the 18 century (Jane Austin’s time) was kept

locked up because it was very expensive. It was sold

in many grades, from the highly refined, pure white

sugar that only the well off could afford, down to the

darkest of brown sugars used by the poor.

Granulated sugar had been only recently invented

and was not yet widely available. Sugar was molded

into large, cone-shaped loaves weighing several

pounds each that had to be broken up or grated

before the sugar could be used. Sugar cubes would

not be invented until 1843 – if people wanted sugar

for tea, they had to first break it into irregular lumps

with special tools called “sugar nippers,” from

which practices comes the traditional question “One

lump or two?”