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Sweet and Low, by Rich Cohen, is a non-fiction memoir of Cohen’s mother’s family and how Cohen’s grandfather invented the sugar packet, founded Cumberland Packing, and invented the famous artificial sweetener, Sweet N’ Low. Cohen also divulges into his side of the family being disinherited, and a history of sugar, dieting, and artificial sweetener.
The book starts out with Cohen describing his mother’s family, which consisted mainly of Cohen’s grandfather, Ben Eisenstadt, his grandmother, Betty Eisenstadt, and his uncle, Marvin “Marvelous” Eisenstadt. While revealing details of his family’s life and Cumberland Packing, Cohen also spends chapters on the history of sugar, dieting, and artificial sweetener. The second part of the book focuses on a scandal in Cumberland under the leadership of Ben’s son, Marvin. The third part goes into the details of Cohen’s side of the family’s disinheritance of the Sweet N’ Low fortune. Cohen also spends some time on his parent’s move from Brooklyn to the Chicago suburbs and his childhood there, which is the topic of another one of his books, Lake Effect. Overall, Cohen does a fantastic job of weaving the stories of his family, sugar/dieting/artificial sweetener, and Cumberland Packing into one fascinating tale. I could not find anything of note to say against this book, which is why I give it a rating of…

10/10

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