Even in prehistoric times, people loved sweets. When they went out to look for food, they always brought something sweet with them. People already knew back then that sweet meant tasty, and bitter did not.
The first real sweetener people used to give food a sweet taste was honey. In the Stone Age, hunters collected honey from wild bee nests. And the ancient Egyptians already had beehives full of honey bees as early as 2500 BC. Sugar as we know it today was also used very early on. As far back as 3000 BC, people in India knew how to extract sugar from sugarcane. Through the Arab countries, that technique later became known in France and Spain. Image result for list of sweets from the past
So honey and cane sugar were already used to sweeten things, but we had to wait a bit longer for the first candy—that didn’t arrive until the 16th century!! The idea of making all kinds of candy from cane sugar arose around 1510 in the Southern Netherlands. The sugar was first heated, and then flavouring was added. The German emperors had this sugar confectionery brought in from the Southern Netherlands (now the Netherlands). They also had little figures made from sugar confectionery for special occasions—and tada, the first real candy! A shame for ordinary people, though, because candy was only for the truly rich. Until, in 1747, a German pharmacist discovered you could extract sugar much more cheaply from sugar beets!! Candy became more and more popular—and just look at how much candy there is now!!