Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

3 Very Ripe Banana

1 Egg

1/3 cup of Milk

½ cup of Sugar

½ cup of Brown Sugar

1 ½ cup of Flour

1 teaspoon of Baking Soda

1 teaspoon of Salt

3 tablespoons of Chocolate Chips (or as many as you want)

Muffins are a delicious treat that can contain a variety of ingredients depending on personal preferences, the one common factor most muffins contain however is sugar.

Sugar

Sugar is one of the worlds most important exports. Sugar comes from sugar cane that is squeezed and pressed to release the juice that contains sucrose. The sucrose is then processed into the sugar we know and love. Sugar is used in a wide variety of foods to enhance sweetness.

Sugar Cane

Sugar cane originates in Southeast Asia where it spread to India and China, following the Arab conquests of India sugar cane spread to Europe where it is grown on sub-tropical islands. The Portuguese established sugar plantations on the island of Madeira and the Spanish established them on the Canarias. The sugar plantations that developed on these islands would be the model for the sugar plantations that are established in the new world especially in the Caribbean.

Significance

Sugar cane is a very labour-intensive crop that requires huge investments of time to produce sugar. Plantation owners soon found it very profitable to have slaves be the main workforce of the sugar plantations. With the realisation of the need for slave labour and the discovery of the vast amounts of profit to be had from the establishment of sugar plantations, the slave market increases substantially. The expansion of the slave trade devastates the West African population as they search for new slaves heads inland. Slave conditions on the sugar plantations are horrible and millions of slaves pass through the plantations as the slaves die from exhausting and the horrible oppression of the plantation owners. With the increasing competition over control of the profitable trade in the Caribbean came colonial conflict and the rise of privateering. Privateering is the act of piracy sanctioned by the colonial European powers to attack their rivals and steal the riches of their ships.

Sugar’s importance as a food grows with the rise of beverages like coffee and tea and the increasing prevalence of candy like chocolate bars.

Today 30 percent of the world’s sugar comes from beet root after the discovery of sucrose in the plant by German chemist Andreas Marggraf in 1747.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins; https://www.food.com/recipe/banana-chocolate-chip-muffins-19424 (accessed 12. 04. 2020). Mansfeld’s World Database of Agriculture and Horticultural Crops; http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/apex/f?p=185:46:6528499866851::NO::module,source,taxid,akzname:mf,volksnam,35616,Saccharumofficinarum (accessed 12. 04. 2020). Peanut, New World Encyclopedia; https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sugar (accessed 12. 04. 2020).