In 1898, you could order giant boxes of cheap candy and chocolates, colored and flavored with all kinds of industrial byproducts. Nothing was off the table. “Artificial” is semantic, they just called it “glucose” instead of “corn syrup”. Source: 1898 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. I also read up on contemporary recipes for commercial candy making.
I feel like when most people think of 1990s food, they’re (accurately) picturing brightly-colored snacks and candy.
I’m also inclined to think that kids today are VERY aware of the 80s due to the popularity of the aesthetic and it feels weird that someone would assume we went “backwards” with candy like that
None of this is certain, of course. They could just be reminiscing about a time as a kid when they made candy with their family, too!
You still had a lot of older women making and canning their own stuff, in older 60s or 70s pots like that. It just wasn’t as common and things were trending away from that
Maybe they meant 1898.
Ah, that’s a good point. 1898 makes a lot more sense for baking your own sweets.
The 1990s was a big decade for processed foods
In 1898, you could order giant boxes of cheap candy and chocolates, colored and flavored with all kinds of industrial byproducts. Nothing was off the table. “Artificial” is semantic, they just called it “glucose” instead of “corn syrup”. Source: 1898 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. I also read up on contemporary recipes for commercial candy making.
I feel like when most people think of 1990s food, they’re (accurately) picturing brightly-colored snacks and candy.
I’m also inclined to think that kids today are VERY aware of the 80s due to the popularity of the aesthetic and it feels weird that someone would assume we went “backwards” with candy like that
None of this is certain, of course. They could just be reminiscing about a time as a kid when they made candy with their family, too!
You still had a lot of older women making and canning their own stuff, in older 60s or 70s pots like that. It just wasn’t as common and things were trending away from that
Or maybe they meant sweats.