Capital cafe offers guilt-free treats
First it was smoking, now should table sugar disappear from Wellington’s cafes?
The Sugar Trade cafe in Wellington’s northernmost suburb of Tawa was so-named because its goal is to show customers how table sugar can be swapped for healthier alternatives.
The cafe uses fructose-free sweeteners such as rice syrup, sugar alcohols, stevia (a plantbased sugar substitute), and occasionally glucose, to create all sorts of treats, including mixed-berry cheesecake and even chocolate cake.
It also offers savoury snacks such as bowls of cashews, almonds
‘‘It’s hard to find a place to get together with friends without sugar coming at you.’’ Angela Humphrey
and pistachio nuts, salmon with cream cheese on oat cakes, and blue cheese on crackers.
Owner Angela Humphrey said her cafe was free of fructose, a fruit sugar found in common table sugar. It has been linked to increased weight gain and all the bad stuff that can come with it, such as diabetes and heart disease.
‘‘That’s our reason for being. There’s a lot of people working on dropping sugar from their lives but, the moment they step out of their own house, they’re just drowning in sugar. ‘‘It’s hard to find a place to get together with friends without sugar coming at you. People kind of know it’s not good for you but they don’t really understand how bad it is.’’
Humphrey ran healthy-living workshops before opening the cafe in April. She thought her cafe might be the first of its type in Wellington.
New Zealand Dental Association spokesman Rob Beaglehole said cutting out a lot of table sugar was ‘‘a move in the right direction’’.