I Want Some of Your Brown Sugar

A comment of Matt Yglesias’s blog

I’ve read that back before the sugar tariffs, various Caribbean islands were known for the distinctive attributes of sugar grown there, much like wine or coffee from different regions (unrefined, obviously). Also, in the US “brown sugar” is usually just white sugar with molasses added, rather than actual unrefined sugar. Real brown sugar is tasty.

Posted by minderbender | July 9, 2008 11:17 AM

reminded me of one of the finest R&B songs ever recorded, D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar.”

To the various Caribbean islands that once cultivated distinctive varieties of sugar, let me just say:

Brown Sugar babe, I gets high off your love — I don’t know how to behave.

I recently decided to make some of my mother’s special lemonade, which I very much enjoyed as a child: water, sugar, and lemon. I’ve always thought of this as a distinctively Bengali ethnic beverage. Turns out this is roughly how everyone makes lemonade, to my chagrin, but we had a special name for it. Anyway, so I tried to make it with brown sugar, which I purchased earlier on to make some exotic soup, and, um, it didn’t taste quite right. Which is not to say that I do not want some of your brown sugar, Domino Sugar.

As to the substantive issue, I mean, clearly we should lift these damn tariffs. Come on. Let’s be serious.