It's true, I'm an old lady and I love sugar cubes. Do you keep them in your cupboard? Do you use them? Do your kids even know what sugar cubes are? Do they get those, 'one lump or two' jokes from cartoons?Next time you're at the market, check out the sweetener section of your store. I won't even call it the 'sugar' section, because as I think you'll find: there are more things there that aren't sugar than are. Every kind of artificial sweetener you can buy.
Now, I have nothing against artificial sweeteners. I know they're very important, especially for diabetics, and keep people healthier. I'm thankful there are more choices out there and that some of the newer choices are made from natural sources and processes. But, to edge out sugar? To the point where there aren't even sugar cubes on the shelves?
That's just wrong.
Sugar cubes are important for several reasons:
- They're just a more civilized way of serving sugar for coffee or tea. Some little tongs; plop, plop, stir and tap the spoon on the edge.
- Sugar cubes allow you to have the same amount of sugar every time you use it. Spoons differ in size and so do scoops. Maybe you're more aggressive one day and less another. This equals different amounts of sugar in your drink. Not with sugar cubes. One sugar cube is one sugar cube on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
- Two words: champagne cocktail. Champagne cocktail!! You cannot make a Champagne cocktail with a packet of sugar, a packet of Truvia, a spoonful of sugar or a packet of Equal. You must have a sugar cube. You must place it in the bottom of your glass and douse it with a few drops of bitters. You must top it with your favorite bubbling wine. You must watch the bubbles stream from the cube to the top of the flute. You cannot do it any other way.
- What are you going to feed that horse that is leaning over the rustic fence on the idyllic country rode with tall trees shading the lane and a brook running along one side? You can't feed him a spoonful of sugar you pulled from your pocket, I know that much. And she sure doesn't want you to give her a packet of something that used to be sugar or was processed from a leaf of a plant in Mexico. She wants a sugar cube.
So what do we do? Two of the three stores I visited last weekend did not stock sugar cubes. You can buy them on-line and I'm going to get some of those fancy French sugar cubes. What great packages!
Talk to your store manager. Write your congressman. Most importantly, buy, use and serve real sugar cubes. Before it's too late. Before they are....extinct. And you'll have to make your own.