Who invented candy? Why is it so sweet? Why does hard candy melt in your mouth? How are candy corn, gummies and nerds made? What makes pop rocks pop? We talk with traditional candy makers at Sticky in California and Hercules Candies in New York about how these sweet treats take their shape. And we get a little reminder about why we can’t eat sugar all day, every day.
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- Humans have always sought out sweetness, so there’s no way to say who created the first candies. Humans found sugar in honey, maple syrup, sugar cane, sugar beets and fruits. Ancient cultures created many treats out of honey and nuts.
- When sugar became more widely available in the 1600s, people started making boiled candy that would look somewhat familiar to the candy you see today. By the 1700s, candy making had become an industry.
- Hard candy is typically made by boiling down sugar with water and a secondary form of sugar like corn syrup. The smaller glucose molecules in corn syrup get in between the larger sucrose molecules from the sugar and interrupt the process of crystallization when the mixture cools down and hardens.
- When enough water has evaporated, the mixture is a gooey, hot lava-like mix. You can then shape that gooey mass into whatever shape you’d like and when it cools down, it’s candy.
- To make gummies, gelatin is added to the sugar mix and then it is poured into molds. The proteins in the gelatin will hold the sugar and water in suspension to allow the gummies to hold their shape but still be soft.
- Candy corn is also made with molds, but mallowcreme is added to the mixture to make it opaque and kind of pasty in texture.
- Nerds are made from a sugar crystal that is coated with multiple layers of liquid corn syrup. It then gets spun in a pan so that more layers grow on it. They then take on all the odd shapes you expect from nerds.
- It isn’t good for your body to get too much sugar, but some sugar is essential, so it’s a good idea to eat a wide variety of types of foods.
