Rock Candy

Review of Literature

Introduction- History of Rock Candy Rock Candy is the purest form of sugar. The earliest date for refined white sugar is 200 C.E. In the 19th century, Rock Candy was almost gone due to the creation of cheap corn syrups. Traditional Rock Candy returned in the 1960’s. For centuries Rock Candy has had therapeutic and preservative qualities. II. Rock Candy Facts There are two types of sugar, Amorphous and Crystalline. Amorphous is sugar without shape, like cotton candy. Crystalline is sugar with shape, like rock candy. Rock Candy originated in India and Iran. Rock Candy was known as Mishri, Gand, and Kalakanda. Rock Candy has a unique texture.

Rock candy was first sold in the USA as rock candy sticks.

How Rock Candy is made The formation of Rock Candy takes approximately six to seven days. Rock Candy is formed using the same process that produces Quartz, and diamonds. Rock Candy is made by breaking apart the sugar molecular crystal lattice and allowing it to reform. Crystal Lattice is the symmetrical three-dimensional arrangement of atoms inside a crystal. To make Rock Candy, you start by dissolving sugar in boiling water. This forms a sugar syrup which must be cooled down. However, how you cool it down will make a difference. IV. Color and Flavor In the 1970s color and flavor were added to Rock Candy. Red Rock Candy was made with dye from Cochineal. The dye was made of dried, pulverized female Cochineal insects. Blue Rock Candy was made with a dye from the Indigo plant. Indigo is a tropical plant of the pea family. Some people today use kool-aid to flavor their Rock Candy. Rock Candy can also be flavored with certain types of oils made for hard candies. Flower Essence or Ambergris was also sometimes added to the Rock Candy. Ambergris is a waxlike substance that originates from the whale and is found floating in tropical seas and is used in perfume

Uses of Rock Candy In the 1800s, Rock Candy was used as a cough and cold remedy. In Thailand, it was used as money. In Mexico, it was used to make sugar skulls. In Germany and Hungary, it was used to sweeten tea and coffee. China used it in cuisine, medicine, tea, soup, cantonese dessert and liqueur. In the Netherlands, it was baked into bread called Fryske Sukerbale. In India, it was used with aniseed as a mouth freshener. Aniseed is the aromatic seed of the anise plant. In India, it also known as viz, kalakandu (kal meaning rock and kandu meaning candy). In Tamil, it is called Kalkandi and used in cuisine. In some areas it was added to whiskey to give it a medicine value. In China, it was used for people who were addicted to heroin or opium. It was used to fight the withdrawal symptoms by ingesting the crystal sugar into their bloodstream. VI. The Science of Sugar Each grain of sugar consists of a small crystal made of an orderly arrangement of molecules called Sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide made up of glucose and fructose. Sucrose is produced from the chemical reaction between two simple sugars called glucose and