The English began adding sugar to their tea between 1685 and the early 18th century.[46] At this time, sugar was already being used to enhance the flavour of other foods among the elite and had a reputation as an ostentatious luxury.[47] Because both tea and sugar had status implications it made sense to drink them together,[48] and the growth in the import of tea parallels that of sugar in the 18th century,[49] which itself was booming due to the growth of sugar plantations in the Americas.[50] But, as previously mentioned, the elite classes of England were starting to care more about their health and literature on the unhealthiness of sugar was beginning to circulate in the late seventeenth century.[51] Adding sugar to tea, however, was seen as an acceptable way to consume sugar because it suggested that “one had the self-control to consume sugar in a healthy way.”[51] Sugar also masks tea’s bitterness, so it simply made tea more desirable because it tasted better.