How a discarded sugar refinery waste product became the world's oldest branded food item.

History · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Once considered mere pig-food, golden syrup was transformed by Victorian chemists into a kitchen staple. Its iconic tin features a bizarre biblical scene of a lion carcass filled with bees, a branding choice that has endured since 1885, making it the oldest registered trademark in the world today.

The origins of golden syrup lie in the industrial ingenuity of the 19th-century sugar trade. In 1863, Abram Lyle, a cooperage owner in Greenock, acquired the Glebe Sugar Refinery to settle a debt. He discovered that the refining process produced a bitter, dark molasses by-product typically sold as animal feed. By 1883, chemists Charles and John Joseph Eastick, working at Lyle's refinery in Plaistow, London, developed a method to refine this waste into a palatable, honey-like sweetener. Their commercial success led to the first canned golden syrup in 1885.

The product's unique properties stem from the process of inversion. By splitting sucrose into glucose and fructose, manufacturers create a syrup that remains liquid and resists crystallization. This chemical transformation, which also affects the rotation of polarized light, allows for a sweeter taste than standard white sugar; consequently, bakers can use about 25% less golden syrup to achieve the same level of sweetness. Today, most producers achieve this by inverting refiner's return syrup, ensuring a consistent, non-crystallizing product.

The brand's enduring identity is tied to its unusual packaging. The tin displays a dead lion with a swarm of bees and the slogan, "Out of the strong came forth sweetness." This references a riddle from the Book of Judges, where Samson finds honey inside a lion's carcass. While the exact reasoning for the choice remains debated, it likely reflects Abram Lyle's religious faith or the transformation of "strong" bitter molasses into a sweet syrup. Registered as a trademark in 1904, the design was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2006 as the world's oldest branding. Following a 1921 merger with Sir Henry Tate's firm, the product remains a global household name, produced today by various international entities including American Sugar Refining.

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