In the Prologue, Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos describe how they personally became interested in writing about sugar’s influence on world history. Marc learned from his family in Jerusalem how his own family was involved with sugar. Marc’s grandfather on his father’s side, Solomon, was the grand rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Kiev (which was then part of the Russian Empire). After Solomon’s family immigrated to Tel Aviv in Israel, Marc’s uncle Avram married a Russian Christian named Nina despite Solomon’s objections. Nina came from a family of Russian serfs. Her grandfather invented a way to give sparkling colors to beet sugar, making him rich enough to buy his and his family’s freedom.

Budhos’s ancestors were originally from India and immigrated to Guyana, a country in the Caribbean, to work as laborers on sugar plantations. Her grandmother had a white house in the village of Letter Kenny. Since her great-grandfather worked as a sirdar, a supervisor of field workers, he became rich. The family converted to Christianity and acclimated to Western culture. When Budhos visited Guyana, she found the house had long been torn down, and she discovered “sugar had been the entire reason for this country’s existence” (5).

Next, Aronson and Budhos describe what they call the “Age of Honey,” which came before the spread of sugar across the world. During this time, people in Africa, Asia, and Europe depended on honey from beehives for sweeteners, while people in the Americas used tree or cactus syrups or fruits to sweeten food. Honey differed from sugar in that its flavor was influenced by local flavors. The hierarchy of bee society, with the queen and workers, was taken as a model for human society. Sugar, in contrast, had a more uniform flavor that people strongly craved. Also, it was not local, but was traded and shipped around the world. Aronson and Budhos argue that the demand for sugar caused human suffering while also encouraging ideas about liberty.