Golden Syrup - History

History

Abram Lyle, a Scottish businessman, had sent his five sons from Greenock to London in 1881 to build a sugar refinery at Plaistow which started melting sugar in 1882. When problems with cargoes almost brought their work to an abrupt halt, Lyle insisted they carry on working on something else. The sugar cane refining process produced a treacle-like syrup that usually went to waste, but chemist Charles Eastick formulated how it could be refined to make a preserve and sweetener for cooking. Golden syrup was the result.

The tin bears a picture of the rotting carcass of a lion with a swarm of bees, and the slogan "Out of the strong came forth sweetness". This is a reference to the Biblical story in chapter 14 of the Book of Judges in which Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and when he passed the same spot on his return he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle at a wedding: "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness". While it is not known exactly why this image and slogan were chosen, Abram Lyle was a deeply religious man, and it has been suggested that they refer either to the strength of the Lyle company or the tins in which golden syrup is sold. In 1904 they were registered together as a trademark, and in 2006 Guinness World Records declared the mark to be Britain's oldest brand. Lyle's golden syrup was awarded a Royal Warrant in 1911.

In 1921 Lyle's business merged with Tate, a sugar-refining firm founded by Sir Henry Tate in 1859, to become Tate & Lyle. In 2010, Tate & Lyle sold its sugar refining and golden syrup business to American Sugar Refining.