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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The sweetness issue between the US and UK has always been a bit peculiar, even hypocritical to me.

The Brits do love their sweets. They eat an insane amount of candy. I see many more people eating candy in the UK than in the US. And they have treacle and golden syrup aplenty. And they put royal icing on a lot of their baked goods and royal icing is pretty damn sweet.

I think the difference boils down to that the British restrain their intense sweetness for specific things so they know what they're getting, while other baked goods and desserts are not going to be as sweet as the American counterparts. Pies is a perfect example. The British fruit pies will have less sugar and be more tart than the American equivalent. Their cakes are not as sweet (although the icings can still be pretty sweet, especially if they use a royal icing glaze). The British tend to have a lot more custardy desserts and when they talk about making pudding/dessert it almost always involves custard to some degree. They even serve custard alongside pies. So when they think of sweet flavors, the sweetness of custard is what they're expecting. But when they think of candy, trust me, they're eating something as sugary sweet as any American candy.  [/quote]

I'm a Brit who lives in the U.S., and I think these are all good observations.  I would say that, as a general proposition, American desserts tend to be a good bit sweeter than their British counterparts.  For example, American cakes tend to be much sweeter than British cakes, and American fruit pies tend to be much sweeter than British fruit pies.  British fruit pies (and yes, they do exist and are not all fruit tarts) tend to be tarter and have a less gloopy/syrupy filling.  And it's not just the amount of sugar used, either.  British fruit pies quite often use naturally tart fruits - such as redcurrants, blackcurrants, or gooseberries - that you rarely see in the U.S.

The PP is correct, though, that British people do tend to have a sweet tooth (as do Americans, generally).  Chocolate bars, in particular, are extremely popular.  And there are plenty of very sweet desserts.  I do think that desserts in Britain have been trending in a more Americanized direction.  When I visit the U.K. now, I see more U.S. style cakes and desserts than I ever did when I was growing up in the there.  But the big difference, as I see it, is that the vast majority of U.S. desserts are extremely sweet.  In the U.K., there is still a great variety of desserts that range from extremely sweet to not that sweet.  It's easy to pick and choose between them depending on your preference.

Now, the thing that raises the eyebrows of most English people I know is not how sweet American desserts are, but how sweet American commercially produced bread is.  And, compared to commercially produced bread in the U.K., it really is very noticeable.  There also tend to be fewer preservatives, dyes, and artificial ingredients in British foods.  This is true even in unhealthy things like soda and fast food.  It's not healthy in either place, but the ingredient list is typically shorter in the U.K. [/quote]

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