Whatever happened to sugar lumps?

[CanIRetirePlease]

I was trying to explain the idea of sugar lumps to my slightly baffled kids. Why did sugar lumps disappear? I have not seen one in over a decade

I buy them for champagne cocktails 🥂

They dissolved in a really delicious way if you sucked them, gradually eroding...

You can get boxes of sugar lumps in Tesco

Oh my goodness I love this thread, Sugar lumps! You’re right they’ve gone! They take me back to getting the polio vaccine which was put into a sugar lump. And exciting trips to a cafe with my parents- a very rare event that I loved so much as a very small child. The sugar lumps were a part of it. My teen daughter doesn’t know what they are I’ve just checked with her. And she collects sugar sachets everywhere we go too!

They still exist, we buy them. You don’t see them in cafes anymore - I think generally people got more conscious of germs and now sugar is served in little individual sachets rather than a big bowl that people can touch and sneeze over etc.

My granny used to offer the sugar lumps in a bowl to visitors - she had special sugar cube tongs to pick them up. Very sophisticated! Haven't seen them for years.

I have sugar tongs... useful for picking a few olives out of the jar without spilling brine

I used to collect sugar lumps that were wapped in pretty paper.
My son now collects sugar sachets and sushi soy sauce fish.

I remember my polio vaccine sugar lump too.

You mean sugar cubes, don't you?

They come both ways - as cubes or as more rustic lumps.

One lump or two?

I think they do still exist but probably only in posher cafes and restaurants perhaps. The days of the two in the paper wrapper perhaps not but loose sugar cubes I see regularly, well only this week at the breakfast in a hotel we were staying at. They are not t quite as square and white as the Tate and Lyle ones.

Thanks OP….this thread really piqued my interest and I’ve spent a pleasant half hour down a sugary rabbit hole!!

I think sugar in sachets/stick packs has largely taken over from sugar lumps in places like cafés and restaurants, canteens etc. They are more hygienic than loose sugar lumps…as kids we loved playing about with the sugar on the table until Mum spotted us and told us to stop. Also you don’t need to process the sugar into lumps first so less costly than wrapped sugar lumps. Cheaper to make and buy.

Tate & Lyle actually bought the rights to one of the first sugar lump making processes back in the late 1800s and they made it a huge part of their business. Growing up in the 70s and 80s the little wrapped pairs of cubes with the Tate & Lyle logo were a feature of a cup of coffee in town with my Mum. Although they still make “Rough Cut” sugar cubes in small packets they don’t make the wrapped kind any more and their catering offering has switched to stick packs.

Sugar Cubes are still popular where we live in France and there are a variety of packs of cubes available in the supermarket. La Perruche make very nice wrapped sugar cubes in both brown and white sugar and you sometimes get them in fancier cafés and restaurants. They are way more expensive than sachets or ordinary sugar cubes to buy though so they are definitely a statement.

I used to pocket a few for my ponies from cafes!
Haven’t seen them for ages though.

We still have them in our church hall kitchen, so I assume they're available in our local supermarkets. Their popularity has waned, I think, because so few people take sugar in their hot drinks nowadays.

Just brought a lovely memory back, if anyone remembers the sugar shortage in around 1974, my mum had a friend who brought a box of sugar lumps shaped like clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades, I think from Czechoslovakian where she was working. Soooo exotic 💖

Thanks for the earworm

But seriously, does anyone remember Manbre sugar crystals? Looks like they are a thing of the past

Brown cubes are all we use at home for coffee. I'm convinced they taste better 🤣

Have I finally 'made it' on to a MN posh list based on this?

I take less than half a teaspoon of sugar in tea and coffee. My problem with sugar lumps and cubes is they're too large.

I still see them quite a bit when I eat out!

I get rough cut so they're differing sizes.

I had a coffee in a pub yesterday and there were two brown sugar lumps on the spoon. It was a delight and I crunched them up at once, as sugar in black coffee is rank! 😜

I buy them for my hot drinks! I love them - inherited a silver set from my grandparents, so I use the lovely little tongs each morning. It brings me joy.

They became hard to get quite a while ago - I worked as a science tech in a school and one of the experiments called for sugar lumps. We had to phase out the experiment because it was so hard to get lump sugar! This was maybe 15 years ago now!

Had them on a norwegian cruise last summer - took a while to dissolve in their tiny mugs of coffee.

Waitrose etc sell them still and I’ve even see. Them in some tescos