C and H Sugar Is Now a Misnomer

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

Help Support AutomaticWasher.org:

rp2813

rp2813

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 16, 2006
Messages
18,066
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. 

 

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/19/crockett-last-hawaiian-sugar-ship-bids-historic-farewell/
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.

http://https//www.aei.org/publication/20-years-in-nafta-finally-sours-the-us-sugar-program/
 
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).
 
Yes,

I'm familiar with the German sugar beet industry as well from my model railroad hobby. The BR 85 steam tank locomotive was one of the last steamers to haul sugar beet cargo trains after WW 2 to the late 1960's.
Hawaii's economy changed after the sugar cane plantations all closed also.
In the late 70's, we could still get jet fresh Hawaiian pineapple also.
By the time I was buying produce for my company, they were from Costa Rica.
Before the new parent company bought us in 1989, I could even get Jaffa oranges from Israel.
 
I also remember passing the Domino refinery on the steamboat trip out of New Orleans.

Other than Domino, the only non-store brand we have around here is Dixie Crystals, refined in Savannah, Ga.

I could never tell the slightest difference between the name brands and the cheapest store brand, though.
 
California produces massive amounts of sugar from beets as well. Tons are grown in the Imperial Valley. Unlike the upper Midwest, the beets grown there cannot be stored in piles outside, for they would quickly degrade in the heat. Instead they are shipped to nearby factories as soon as they are harvested. The factories run 7x24.

 

Like others, I've never detected a difference between cane sugar and beet sugar. It's all sucrose. These days I prefer turbinado sugar, which retains some trace minerals and has a slight molasses taste. Great in coffee.

 

Beet greens are supposed to be nutritious as well, being related to chard. But most of them are plowed under to enrich the soil.

 

Similarly, I scoff at pricey "high-end" vodkas. Other than the fancy bottles and labels, vodka is basically diluted pure ethanol. Except when flavored, then it's no longer real vodka. Lots of people get conned by the hype and advertising. And not only in presidential elections.

 
 
Vodka

Rich, I agree with you on both:  sugar is sugar and vodka is vodka.  However, a friend of mine who is something of a functioning alcoholic -- he only drinks on weekends, but does so heavily and vodka is his hooch of choice -- insists that there is a difference.

 

The only time I noticed a difference was when he was buying "Cupcake" brand at TJ's for $5 a bottle.  I tried some in a gimlet and decided it was way too smooth and gave the cocktail an "off" taste.  So, there may be ways to effect the flavor profile through the filtering and distilling process, but I tend to feel that people are fooling themselves by paying three or four times more than the mid-shelf stuff costs in opting for designer vodka.  A blind tasting would likely indicate as much.

 

 
 
One difference that matters to some between sugar cane and sugar beets is that (the last I heard) sugar beets are very likely to be a GMO crop in the US. Sugar cane isn't. So for those who wish to avoid GMOs, sugar cane would be the choice.

 

As far as brand is concerned, I suppose there could be differences, but I question whether they'd make much of a difference. At least in my life. 

 
 
As for vodka, I've heard there is a difference between brands. I guess I'd believe that--at least as a hypothesis--but I'd have to wonder if the differences would be as pronounced as the differences with, say, wine. I also cynically would think that at some point it becomes about a fancy label name, and not the contents of the bottle. But what do I know?

 

Video showing a vodka test:

 
Well, there may be a difference in terms of contaminants between vodka brands. Typically I would imagine a solvent like vodka would be filtered through activated charcoal to remove any off aromas or tastes. The quality of the charcoal may have an effect.

 

Also, the distillation process must be carefully controlled for highest purity. Cheaper brands may over drive the distillation, resulting in more contaminants in the distillate. The cleanliness of the distillation equipment probably makes a difference, as would the hygiene in the factory. We've all probably heard of food or drink factories getting shut down because of birds nesting in the rafters above production lines, or rodents scurrying about. Nuff said.

 

Then there is the raw ingredients. After all, the source is basically fermented potatoes. Potatoes come in various varieties. I would imagine very cheap vodka brands might use very cheap potatoes, such as ones that have gone green or sprouted, or even have black fungal patches. All that might show up as an off taste in an inferior product. From the Youtube comparison, sounds like whoever makes Trader Joe's vodka is using blighted, green, or sprouted potatoes.

 

Some brands may also add in flavoring, but that's probably a closely guarded secret if it does happen. Outside of deliberately flavored vodkas for the poseur crowd.

 

I've always thought Smirnoff was a good enough vodka. Tastes exactly the same to me a Sky, although usually when I consume vodka it's in a mixed drink which covers up most differences.

 

I worked in bio science and biochem labs for many years and pure ethanol was a standard lab chemical. We used it for disinfection and also some extractions. It would always amaze me when people who didn't work in these types of labs would get all excited about the "free" ethanol. To me it was just another chemical, and I have NEVER tried to consume lab alcohol.

 

And there's also a caveat to the ignorant: never try to drink 100% lab ethanol. Ethanol by nature absorbs water readily from the atmosphere and during distillation. To get 100% ethanol the chemist must add some benzene to it, and that will grab the water and remove it during distillation. But there's always some benzene left behind. Benzene being highly toxic, you don't want to be drinking that stuff. The 95% stuff is probably OK, but again, I just would never try it because I know what happens in laboratories.

 
 
Smell is a tricky business, which is a significant component of taste.  Everyone is anosmic to something, but about 1% of the population is seriously anosmic to almost everything.  My own sense of smell is very strong, probably stronger than most, but I don’t know of any way to measure that sort of thing.  I do know that I can name all the perfumes that people wear in the office, although I rarely mention it—that would be too creepy, even for me. 

 

With that as background, I can tell you that I can smell a distinct difference between Kroger-brand sugar and Dixie Crystals.  I am very skeptical of flashy branding, and I am very supportive of science over opinion, so for a while, we bought Kroger sugar based solely on price.  It’s all sucrose, right?  Well, problematically, the Kroger sugar had an absolutely sickening smell.  I swear, it smelled like dried bones—like bone meal people use as organic fertilizer.  It smelled exactly, 100% the same.  I tried to pretend it wasn’t there, and I tried to tell myself it was entirely psychological, but I finally had to give up and go back to Dixie Crystals.

 

I know bone char is used in sugar processing, so I know perfectly well that my perception could be totally psychological.  But I swear Dixie Crystals does NOT have that smell, and I know they use bone char, too.  My own guess is that Kroger’s processing plant is just not as a good as Dixie Crystals’, but who knows?  I will vouch, though, that there is a difference between the two sugars.
 
Like RCA, AT&T and ITT . . .

. . . they'll probably refile the trademark as a meaningless grouping of letters that are not an abbreviation of anything, i.e.: no longer "Radio Corporation of America d/b/a RCA". And with each passing day, thousands who know what the letters once meant will pass away until only history books will reveal their once-true meaning.
 
I've used some kind of beet sugar years ago, can't find it anywhere now down here.  Walmart, Kroger, Walgreens...store brands taste all the same to me.  Whichever is the cheapest or has it on sale.

 

Vodka...never touch the stuff.  The only time I use alcohol is to clean an IV port at work!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top