Let's fuel our candy love while we are prepping for the July fourth celebrations. It’s a grave mistake to relate candies with kids only. Adults and even the oldies often have an irresistible sweet tooth! And when it comes to the special days and occasions of the year, candy lovers pour in across groceries and online stores to quench their hankerings!

Candy Facts

Here are some interesting (and yes, some of them are lesser-known as well) facts on candies that you'd love to walk through…

• Candy-making is incredibly simple. They are made by dissolving sugar in water. Varied heating levels yield a variety of candies – hard (from hot temperatures), soft (medium temperatures), and chewy (from cool temperatures).
  
  
• Gums should be chewed until the sweetness is completely gone. The sugarless gum will grow into a bigger bubble than the one which has sugar!

• Why do we call white chocolates “chocolates”? That’s technically wrong as white chocolates do not contain real chocolate that is cocoa solids at all!
  
  
• Though Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are the biggest events of candy sales each year, Christmas ropes in the largest share!
  
  
• None of the above three occasions are in June, yet, June is the National Candy Month of the year! Similarly, Halloween is observed to celebrate the fall harvest, but it has eventually turned out to be one of the biggest days for candy sales in the U.S.
  
  
• Did you ever imagine that the business world makes this much out of the Easter festival? More than 90 million Easter bunnies are made each year during Easter! And more than 90% of children expect candy-treat for their tricking or treating sessions.
  
  
• The volume of M&M’s produced each day crosses roughly 400 million!
  
  
• There’s Kit Kat between the wafers of a Kit Kat Bar. Imperfect Kit Kats are not wasted, they are recycled, ground into a paste, and serve to be the padding between the layers.
  
  
• You’ll be astounded to know this – M&Ms are popular among astronauts as well! They are handsomely demanded during space missions as they are bite-sized and candy-coated which makes less of a mess during the space trips.

Can candies be made at home?

Why not? All you’d need is some sugar, water, and syrup. The ingredients needed are rather simple. Sugar (take about 600gms), water (200ml), glucose syrup or corn syrup (about 100 gms), a good candy thermometer, flavors of choice. All the three primary ingredients – sugar, water, and syrup need to be placed in a pan and heated to ideal temperatures to yield the candy of your choice.

Interestingly, all candies are the same – it originates from sugar and water. The variations in heat and added flavors yield the broadened variety of candies that you get to buy!

Who Invented cotton candies?

Did you know cotton candies were invented by a dentist? This happened long back towards the end of the 19^th century (1897 to be precise). Dentist William Morrison was on his way to devise a machine with a centrifugal force that would turn sugar into cotton-like strands. What became of it was “fairy floss,” however the product received its name, cotton candy almost 3 decades later!

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Candy temperatures chart

Your Candy Temperature Chart would go somewhat like this:

• Hard Balls: 250°F - 270°F
• Soft Balls: 235°F - 250°F
• Hard Cracks: 300°F - 310°F
• Soft Cracks: 270°F - 290°F
• Thread formations: 215°F - 235°F

Candy-making at home therefore mandatorily calls for a cooking thermometer that could gauge the temperature of the syrup. Usually, the normal candy thermometers are capable of measuring temperatures up to 160°C (that is, 320°F). This temperature limit suffices no matter whichever candy you’re planning to shape!