C and H Sugar Is Now a Misnomer

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

rp2813

rp2813

Well-known member
Platinum Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2006
Messages
18,010
Location
Sannazay
The cargo ship Moku Pahu, loaded down with the last 30,000 tons of "pure cane sugar from Hawaii" arrived at the C&H refinery in Crockett, CA this past Tuesday.   Apparently sugar is no longer a profitable endeavor in the 50th state and the last mill there has shut down.

 

For some time, C&H has been getting its cane sugar from other sources like Vietnam and Brazil in addition to Hawaii, which explains why the "from Hawaii" part of their slogan disappeared.  I suppose the Hibiscus flower will have to go next.   After this last batch is refined, all C&H sugar will come from foreign suppliers and this exotic Hawaiian connection to the Bay Area will become part of local lore.

 

The refinery in Crockett that has been operating since 1906 (and it looks it) will continue to do so.   It employs around 450 people, but this is most certainly the end of an era. 

 

 

www.mercurynews.com

Last Hawaiian sugar ship bids historic farewell

The last shipment of Hawaiian sugar has arrived in the Bay Area, ending a 145-year history of sugar in the islands.
www.mercurynews.com www.mercurynews.com

rp2813-2017012001265201657_1.jpg

rp2813-2017012001265201657_2.jpg

rp2813-2017012001265201657_3.jpg
 
How many more things do we have to give up until everything is gone? There's a good job for Donald, but I doubt he really cares. Don't know.
 
Now the real story would be how our nation's sugar price supports affect the price of the sugar.  The US sugar price support program is why some candy makers have had to leave the US to be able to remain profitable. There was some disgusting story in 2014 where NAFTA forced the US to allow sugar to be imported from Mexico. It was much cheaper than US-produced sugar so the sugar lobby got legislation passed saying that the sugar could not be sold in the US and would only be able to be used for the ethanol industry, another boondoggle for giving money to corn farmers.

 

If you go to the link and tab down to US Sugar Policy, you can read the sordid history of the policy and get a hint as to why it took 20 years of NAFTA for Mexican Sugar to reach the US.

 
Any Californian's remember this advertising jingle?

C&H, C&H, Mommy uses it to bake her cakes, its the only pure cane sugar from Hawaii.

Blessed by sun, kissed by rain, C&H cane is the only cane,it's pure cane sugar from Hawaii. That's our sugar! C&H pure cane sugar from Hawaii!

This was on a tv commercial during the 60's and I think even into the 70's, sung by little Hawaiian children.

I remember seeing the C&H refinery every time we went over the Carquinez Bridge. It always looked old to me.
Eddie
 
Eddie, the most creepy, decrepit view of the C and H refinery is from Amtrak, which, understandably, crawls by so close you can almost touch the ancient brick exterior -- blackened, at least in part I presume, from half a century of countless coal-fired locomotives loaded down with C and H output as well as those that hauled passengers.

 

I do remember those C and H ads that ran for many years, showing cute Hawaiian kids chewing on sugar cane.  It made me plead with my parents to buy raw sugar cane in the grocery produce department -- back in the days when it could be commonly found there.  When they finally gave in, I was really disappointed with the stuff and never asked for it again.

 

Travis, thanks for posting those ads!  I remember them like it was yesterday!
 
OMG, Ralph! I'd forgotten about the sugar cane the kids were chewing on. I begged for it too, finally got some, never wanted it again, LOL. Thanks for the enhanced memory, I needed smile on day like today.
Eddie
 
Thnaks Ralph! I guess I didn't remember the whole tune, but I sure enjoyed seeing that clip. Brought back happy memories. Watching it shows mne why that sugar cane was so enticing.
Eddie
 
When I went to college in the Sacramento valley in the 70's, one of my acquaintances had worked a summer job at the C&H plant in Crockett. He was a big lanky country boy, but his general impression of the place was not exactly favorable. I remember him muttering something about being coated with sticky sugar by the end of the work day.

 

Later in the 80's I got a chance to go visit Hawaii myself. I remember the sugar cane fields on Maui. And a strong aroma of marijuana in the air, with rough looking locals standing guard at the entrances of the dirt roads into the cane fields. I concluded that there were pot grow operations sort of hidden in the middle of all that sugar.  And that it was harvest time. I'd already given up weed by then so my interest was purely academic.

 

Now that stuff is mostly grown in warehouses hither and yon. A lot of people apparently made a lot of money off it, but I've read that what with legalization of recreational use, the prices are going to plummet. Supposedly that a problem for places like Colorado that were depending on price based taxation. Instead of per ounce. Death, Taxes, and Weed. Some things never change.

 

 

 
 
I like to chew on sugar cane, but I can tell you right now, the kids in that commercial had no idea what they were doing.  Chewing on a stick of cane like that would break every tooth out of their head without making a dent in the cane.

 

To chew it, you have to strip off that outer skin first, which is no easy task.  A machete works best, but don’t lose a finger!!  After it’s stripped, you can cut the stalk into 4″ pieces, quarter them, and then chew on them to release the juice.  It isn’t sweet like sugar, but it is refreshing in a slightly sweet sort of way.

 

Our market has a press to extract the juice, which we use for mojitos in the summer.  The juice is a funny green color and the taste of pure juice is unusual, but I really recommend it for a good mojito.  I also prefer Batavia-arrack in my mojito.  Scandalous, I’m sure!!

 

 
 
I've never heard of C&H sugar.  I guess most of our sugar here comes from this area and below like Louisiana.  I know there's a huge Domino sugar refinery in Chalmette, LA.  We pass it while riding the Steamboat Natchez.  It's interesting all the different brands available in other parts of the country.
 
I'm always amused by the "cane" versus "beet" sugar wars--Michigan is a big sugarbeet producer (I work with a woman who grew up in the Thumb on a sugar beet farm). There is always a subtle dig at nasty 'ol sugarbeets (which grow underground) when cane is pure, clean and above ground. Sugarbeets are not the most attractive crop...you see trailersfull around the Thumb during the fall harvest; and near the refinery in Saginaw there's a bit of a whiff. I doubt we'd be able to get "official" C&H around here because it just doesn't make sense to ship deadweight 2000 miles, when it's perfectly serviceable 75 miles up the highway. Sugarbeets are a northern crop (they grow them in Scandinavia and Germany, too).
 

Latest posts

Back
Top