How Sweet It Is!

A few weeks ago, we received an interesting and rather enticing invitation in the mail, from one of our neighbours. It was a totally unexpected invitation as we hardly know them.  We weren’t in the front door but a moment before they introduced us to the reason we were invited, an extremely addictive white powder.

  

Their place is located on Lake Ontario and I would walk by it each day on my way to and from work. I guess it should not have come as any surprise as they have been in the business of pushing this stuff to Canadians since 1852. Located about a soft 3 iron shot from our balcony, The Redpath Sugar cartel, whoops, Company has been located on the Lake since 1959.

 Given the bad press, sugar has been receiving lately, Redpath decided to reach out to their customers. As a huge user, whoops, consumer, the “open house” was an offerI could not refuse.

Sweet poison: why sugar is ruining our health (Article: The Telegraph)

Is Sugar Toxic? (Article: New York Times)

Sweet poison: How sugar, not cocaine, is one of the most addictive and dangerous substances. (Article:  New York Daily News)

Dr. Phil ‘Sugar: A Ticking Time Bomb’ (Article: National Enquirer)

I have not read the above articles as I am sure they are written by those same doomsday types who claim that the glycol contained in ice cream is bad for you or that scrumptious yellow food colouring used in KD causes cancer. I mean really, do you really want to eat white, pasty pasta.

Upon arrival at the main gate, we were met by our pusher, whoops, guide who was very helpful in assuring we knew where to go and what to see.  First on the tour was a 15 minute video.  The older folks were asked to sit at the back, while the prime seating up front was reserved for the kids. It is a well-known, fact that if you catch them young, they will become lifelong users, whoops, consumers of your product.

The product arrives to the plant from their grow ops, whoops, cane fields in cargo ships. Using a large bucket crane, they empty the hold into a hopper which transports the sugar into a huge arena sized warehouse.

From the warehouse, a huge bucket excavator loads the sugar onto a huge conveyor belt where it is carried into the warehouse and processed into a multitude of products.

Photo: Jackman Chiu

 Raw sugar is brown but the sugar arriving to Redpath has already been processed, so it is white. They actually reverse process it in the plant, to produce, molasses and the brown sugars you see on the store shelves.

It was a fun and interesting tour, especially the free samples of sugary little cookie shooters that did not make it to the exit gate. Thanks Redpath, very neighbourly of you. You can count on me to continue to be a prolific user, whoops, consumer of your goods, no matter what they say.

Gimme me some sugar, Baby!

Sugar Beach next to Redpath.  Sadly cannot be seen from our condo.

Photo: asla.org