A generation has a generation of luxuries.
At the moment, the luxury of the young population may be the cherries imported from Chile.
Chile is a country in the southern hemisphere, and the seasons are just the opposite of ours. December-February in our country is winter, and December-February in Chile is summer, which coincides with the ripening days of big cherries.
But among the older generation of rural people, the luxury of that year was not a cherry imported from Chile, but a "shoddy" sugar.
In the northern part of the Caribbean Sea of North America, there is an island shaped like a crocodile, known as the "Green Crocodile of the Caribbean Sea". On the back of this green crocodile, there is a country. The country's territory is just over 200 kilometers away from the United States, but it is a socialist country.
Its name is "Cuba".
Most people are unfamiliar and familiar with Cuba.
In addition to cuba, which is inevitably mentioned in history textbooks, Cuban cigars may also be a "luxury" in the eyes of many people. But for the older generation in the countryside, what impresses them most about Cuba should be another Cuban specialty, "Cuban sugar".
Cuban sugar was once the pride of Cuba, and historically Cuba's peak annual sugar production reached 8.5 million tons, and it was surprising to the world that an island country with an area of only 110,000 square kilometers could produce so much sugar.
Cuba of that era was also known as the "Sugar Pot of the World". Originally, Cuba did not produce sugar and did not grow sugar cane, but with the rise of colonial trade, the colonists found that Cuba's climate was very suitable for growing sugar cane, so they transported a large number of slaves to the island of Cuba and began to develop sugarcane cultivation, and later a large amount of sugarcane was used to make sugar for the European nobility to eat.
Later, Cuban sugar was also supplied to the United States in large quantities for a period of time.
When Cuba became a socialist country and relations with the United States completely collapsed, the sale of Cuban sugar became a problem.
Under such circumstances, in the 60s of the last century, in order to support Cuba, we began to import a large amount of "Cuban sugar" from Cuba.
Cuban sugar is a sugar that comes out of sugar cane, but it is different from the white sugar, brown sugar, etc. we have today. Cuban sugar is yellow-brown in color, even a little black, and does not look so "beautiful". If you look at Cuban sugar from the current perspective, many people may find it difficult to treat Cuban sugar as a delicacy based on appearance, let alone think of it as a "luxury".
Moreover, Cuban sugar tastes far less than today's various sugars, and at that time it was felt to be very sweet to eat, but the sweetness also carried a faint bitterness, and there were some other strange tastes in the bitter taste, in short, it was a kind of sugar substance that seemed to have not been refined, shoddily made.
To say that Cuban sugar is shoddily made is not at all demeaning or exaggerated.
Cuban sugar has long been a focus on production, not quality, and most Cuban sugar can only be called "the primary raw material for sugar".
But even so, Cuban sugar was a luxury for most rural people back then.
First of all, Cuban sugar at that time was not said to be eaten, and when Cuban sugar first entered our country, you could not necessarily buy Cuban sugar even if you had money, because at that time, you needed sugar tickets to buy Cuban sugar. You have to have a sugar ticket to be eligible to buy Cuban sugar. With sugar tickets, you have to have the money to buy Cuban sugar to eat.
Second, although Cuban sugar was later popular throughout the country, in the countryside at that time, Cuban sugar was not like the current sugar, eating it whenever you wanted, and eating it whenever you wanted. Today's sugar is rare for few people, and Cuban sugar at that time was bad for many people.
In those days, it was generally during the New Year's Festival that someone would buy Cuban sugar to visit the elderly; when a child or an elderly person was sick, someone would buy Cuban sugar to visit the sick; when there was a cold, they might take out a bowl of Cuban sugar that had been reluctant to eat for a long time to drink.
Cuban sugar was not an everyday food, but a luxury. In the past, rural children wanted to eat Cuban sugar, but could not afford it; today's rural children have grown up and can afford Cuban sugar, but they don't want to eat it.
What is luxury? Luxury is not a luxury for people, when you have billions of wealth, airplane cruise ships are not luxury; when you are penniless, it may be a luxury to eat meat buns.
It was the luxury of Cuban sugar that we still remember today.
Is there still Cuban sugar today?
some.
Cuban sugar is not gone. We still have sugar imported from Cuba, but most of the Cuban sugar is no longer directly put on the market, it is put on the market after the second deep processing and refining of our country, and the crude Cuban sugar has become "fine sugar".
Cuban sugar like before is estimated that no one will want to eat it anymore.
Cuban sugar is still there, but in a new outfit. But Cuba, the "sugar tank of the world," is no longer glamorous.
Cuban sugar's perennial "emphasis on production rather than quality" has made the Cuban sugar industry gradually lose its position as a sugar boss in the future market competition.
Today' Cuban sugar production has fallen sharply, and the sugar production of Cuba as a whole has lagged far behind that of Guangxi.
Cuban sugar has gradually lost its former glory, is no longer mentioned by the world, and is more of an occasional flash in the memories of our elders.
Cuban sugar, the luxury sugar of a generation, is also the sweetness and bitterness of a generation.