How Are Different Types Of Candies Made

Candy is prepared from sugar syrup. The syrup is heated for a long period so that it starts to solidify. Candies come in variety of textures, from soft and gummy to hard and brittle. The type produced depends on the temperatures and cooling period of syrup during its preparation.

The History

In Old days steam power was used in factories. Candy making and consumption increased during 19th century. In early days of its development preparation was done mostly by hand. It used to be prepared at home or in small, local shops. Increased machine involvement caused prices to come down and consumption increased.In the late 19th century early 20th century, candy was considered sweet and friendly, so preparing it at home, giving to friends and relatives was the trend. But over time its manufacturing developed in to a big industry. There had been a time when it even got the status of alternate meal. At that time there was very little awareness about nutrition. It was only in late 20th century that people were made aware, that these give empty calories and their popularity came down.

Safety

Making candy can be hazardous at times, due to the high temperature of sugar. The temperature often exceeds 150 degrees Celsius. Even small splashes can cause burns.

Types Of Candies

They are basically 2 types of candies. Hard Candy and Soft Candy.

1. Hard candy

Hard candy, is a candy prepared from syrups heated to a temperature of 160 °C. After heating the syrup to this temperature, it is poured in moulds and then cooled till room temperature we get hard candy. To add color, food grade color is used.

2. Soft candy

Soft candy is subdivided in to two categories:

• a. Cotton candy

Cotton candy is made by spinning sugar. The Machines used to make cotton candy has a spinning head covering a small bowl. Granulated sugar is poured in the bowl while it spins. Heaters melt the sugar, and this melted sugar is squeezed out through tiny holes by centrifugal force, and the molten sugar solidifies in the form of strands, then a stick, cone, or hands are used to collect the strands.

• Marshmallows

The use of marshmallow to make a sweet dates back to ancient Egypt. It is prepared using egg whites, corn syrup and sugar. Now a days, marshmallows are prepared by process of extrusion. Extrusion is the process in which we force semi solid paste of sugar through small orifice to give it cylindrical shape.

This article just covers some common varieties here but there are many more types of candies available in the market.

What Candy Are Vegan

Most non-vegan candies can contain a variety of ingredients that are not only stomach turning at the thought but could also come with some side effects. Some common non-vegan ingredients may include gelatin, shellac, carmine and bone char, etc.

 59 Candies That Are Vegan:

This list is by no means exhaustive, but just try to give some examples.

• Airheads – They offer so many flavors to choose from and are chewy! Yum!
• Annie's Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks – I haven't had these myself, but they are so cute and come in different flavors too.
• Atomic Fireballs – This would be the best pick for any hardcore cinnamon lover!
• Big League Chew
• Brach's – As you will notice from the following lines, Brach's is a company with many vegan candy options for every sweet tooth!
  • Brach's Cinnamon Hard Candy
  • Brach's Hi-C Fruit Slices
  • Brach's Hi-C Orange Slices
  • Brach's Root Beer Barrels
  • Brach's Star Brites
• Bottle Caps – Bottle Caps are little tablet candies that vegan.  They are made to look like soda bottle caps and come in various flavors too!
• Charms Blow Pops – I don't know about you, but I love when lollipops have gum in the middle, and that's exactly what this candy is.
• Cry baby
• Dem Bones – As their name states, they are a bunch of bones in a baggy and are totally vegan!
• DOTS – Apart from being delicious, for some reason, I want to use these as edible monopoly figures.
• Dum Dums
• Fruit By The Foot – A roll of fruity candy that
• Fruit Roll Ups
• Fun Dip
• Fuzzy Peach – They are sweet and chewy and sugary and just delicious.
• Hubba Bubba Bubblegum
• Jed's Maple Products – This brand offers some delicious maple candies made from their homemade maple syrup and are just incredible.
• Jolly Rancher Hard Candy
• Jolly Rancher Lollipops
• Jujubes – They are common in the US but don't confuse them with the Canadian Jujubes as these are usually not vegan.
• Jujyfruits – Similar to Jujubes, they are sweet jelly candies with many flavors to choose from.
• Laffy Taffy – Stick to the fun size because the big versions of the candies still contain egg!
• Lemonheads – Both sweet and sour, Lemonheads have just the flavor you seek.
• Mamba Fruit Chews – The flavors are great, and they are very similar to Starburst.
• Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses
• Nerds
• Now & Later
• Panda Licorice – Even though many don't love the flavor of Licorice, you shouldn't be afraid to give this one a try! No pandas were harmed in its production.
• PEZ – If you haven't had PEZ candies before, let me just tell you that as a kid, I loved them so much that I used to collect the different dispensers.
• Pixy Stix
• RealFruit – Berry shaped candies that even mention on the front of their packaging that they are gelatin free!
• Red Vines – Red Vines are a very similar treat to Twizzlers.
• Ring Pops – I believe we have all had a Ring Pop as kids and it's good to know one of our favorite childhood candy is vegan.
• Seitenbacher Happy – Fruits - They offer some very original flavors, like their passion fruit or the black currant
• Skittles – Yes, Skittles are vegan! You can find these almost everywhere, and they are perfect for when you find yourself wanting a quick and accessible vegan candy!
• Smarties Tablet Candy (or Rockets for Canada!)
• Sour Patch Kids – I'm pretty sure almost everyone loves these sweet and sour candies even though they make our mouths hurt after a few too many!
• Starburst minis – When it comes to this sweet candy, the UK version of it contains vegan gelatin (thumbs up!), but the US one a contains non-vegetarian one and is therefore it is not suitable for vegans.
• Super Bubble
• Swedish Berries – If you've never had these before, they are adorable (and delicious) little berry shaped candies.
• Swedish Fish – These little vegan-friendly candies are soft, chewy and fat-free.
• Twizzlers – I believe we all had something similar to these as a kid and used them as weapons or bracelets. (I sure did!)
• Wonka Candies – The Wonka brand offers a good selection of vegan candies as well, and you are bound to find something you'll enjoy.
  • Wonka Gobstoppers
  • Wonka Nerds
  • Wonka Sweet Tarts
• Yum Earth Gummy Worms – Naturally flavored jellies that offer awesome flavors such as raspberry, mango (my personal favorite) and pineapple.
• Zotz – Zotz is a hard candy with a fizzy and sour center

Hope you'd enjoy them!

What Is In Licorice?

What is in licorice?

Liquorice or licorice is a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, the sweet root of which contains glycyrrhizin. Glycyrrhizin is a compound that can be up to 50 times sweeter than sugar. There's a long history of adding licorice root to the traditional medicine, to alleviate the bitter taste.

The liquorice plant is a herbaceous perennial legume native to Western Asia, North Africa and southern Europe. It is not botanically closely related to anise or fennel, which are sources of similar flavoring compounds. (Another such source, star anise, is even more distant from anise and fennel than liquorice is, despite its similar common name.) Liquorice is used as a flavoring in candies and tobacco, particularly in some European and West Asian countries. 

Licorice candy

Licorice may also refer to a type of jelly-like soft candy. Licorice candy is made of licorice extract. It might as well be called as a medicine! 

Licorice is a traditional Chinese medicine that has a flat nature and sweet taste. It replenishes qi and nourishes the spleen. In the TCM, licorice has many functions. It also has the roles of clearing heat, detoxifying, and removing leaching and diuresis. Licorice can ease emergency, but also play a reconciling effect on various medicines.

Licorice tablets

Licorice extract can cover the inflamed throat mucosa to cover up the sensory nerve endings, thereby reducing irritation and exerting a cough-relieving effect. Grass, licorice extract powder, natural menthol, star anise oil and other ingredients work together to make the antitussive and expectorant effects of licorice tablets very significant.

How Is Cotton Candy Made

How is cotton candy made?

Making cotton candy is actually very simple. The powdered sugar is heated and melted in a high-temperature container. The machine rotates at high speed to generate centrifugal force. The melted sugar is sprayed from the small holes of the container, and it is quickly cooled into sugar silk when it encounters air. Spin these sugar shreds, the more sugar shreds accumulate, and gradually form a fluffy shape. If you want cotton sugar of various colors, add powdered sugar with edible coloring.

Cotton Candy's History

What became popular snacks and desserts today dates back to about 600 hundred years ago. The original versions of cotton candy called spun sugar were popular with the upper class dating back to the 1400s in Italy. Italians heated and melted the sugar, and dipped it with a small stick to quickly pull out the filaments and wrapped around the sticks to make silk-like candies, or rather, spun sugar. Because the process of creating spun sugar was so time consuming and used sugar, a luxury ingredient at the time, spun sugar was typically a delicacy only afforded to the wealthy or elite.

Spun sugar was typically made as an edible table centerpiece and accompanied by various fruits. In fact, there were chefs that were renowned to be spun sugar "sculptors", and they would spend hours creating works of art from the liquid sugar.

Cotton candy of the modern form that we're familiar with was first created in 1897 when an American dentist named William Morrison joined forces with a confectioner, John C. Wharton.  Together, the duo created a machine that spun heated sugar through a screen, creating the floss-like texture that we all know and love. They trademarked it as "Fairy Floss". At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, cotton sugar, or rather Fairy Floss rose to fame and became popular household treat.

In 1921, another dentist by the name of Josef Lascaux entered into the cotton candy business. But to avoid association with the original "Fairy Floss" created by Morrison and Wharton, Lascaux decided to market his version as "cotton candy". He thought that the treat looked like the cotton grown in Louisiana, the state he resided in.