What do chocolate bars, jellybeans, caramels, lollipops, and licorice all have in common? Answer: They’re all types of candy.
WHAT IS CANDY?
Candy is one of the world’s most popular sweet-tasting foods. Sugar is the main ingredient in most candy. Other ingredients, such as honey, are sometimes used as sweeteners. Many other ingredients are used in different candies. They include milk, eggs, flour, nuts, fruit, and flavorings such as vanilla and peppermint. The kinds of candy made are nearly endless!
WHAT ARE THE MAIN KINDS OF CANDY?
Candy comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. Some candies are hard while others are soft and creamy or sticky and chewy. What’s the difference? It’s in how the candy is made. Hard candies, such as lollipops and lemon drops, are made by boiling sugar with corn syrup and water. Butter or vegetable oil boiled with sugar produces butterscotch and brittles. Most brittles, including peanut brittle, are made with nuts.
Chewy candies, such as caramels and toffees, are made by boiling sugar, milk, and vegetable oil. Gumdrops are made by boiling sugar with gelatin or cornstarch. Candies such as nougats and marshmallows are made by whipping air into sweet syrups. The air adds volume and makes the candy feel smooth in your mouth. Chocolates are the most popular candies of all. Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean, a type of seed. Chocolate candies are sold mainly as solid bars, chocolate-covered bars, and other chocolate-covered treats.
THREE FUN CANDY FACTS
The simplest candy is cotton candy. It has one ingredient: sugar. The sugar is melted in a container with tiny holes and then spun very fast. The whirling container forces the sugar through the holes, making those thin threads that melt in your mouth. The flavoring for black licorice comes from the root of the licorice plant. Licorice is one of the world’s oldest candies. The ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks used licorice as a medicine. Do you know why a candy cane is curved at the top? Because shepherds often carried curved sticks, and the first visitors to the baby Jesus were shepherds. That’s why candy canes are especially made for Christmas, a day that celebrates the birth of Jesus.
WHEN DO WE EAT CANDY?
Candy is good just about anytime. But people eat more of it than usual at certain times of the year. In the United States , where trick-or-treating is popular, the most candy is eaten around Halloween. The second-most popular time for candy is Easter. Many people receive Easter baskets filled with sweet treats. Next comes Valentine’s Day, which is for giving candy to loved ones and friends. Winter holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are also special times to share candy.
Chocolate
Do you like chocolate? Most people do. Chocolate is one of the most loved foods in the world. It’s used in cake, fudge, cookies, ice cream, hot cocoa, and candy bars. It’s eaten with nuts or raisins or any number of other things. You can even buy chocolate-covered grasshoppers! But chocolate isn’t just candy. Chocolate is used in cooking, too. In Mexico , chocolate is an ingredient in mole sauce, which is often served with chicken. Chocolate-flavored chicken! Can you imagine that? And chocolate isn’t naturally sweet. It’s bitter. Sugar has to be added to make sweet treats out of pure chocolate.
DOES CHOCOLATE GROW ON TREES?
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans. These beans are the seeds of the cacao, or cocoa, tree. Cacao trees grow in warm, tropical climates like those in South America, Central America, and Africa .
HOW IS CHOCOLATE MADE?
Chocolate is made by drying and roasting the cocoa beans. The beans are ground and then crushed to release a liquid known as chocolate liquor. This bitter-tasting liquid contains a fat called cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is what makes chocolate so creamy and delicious. To make powdered cocoa, most of the cocoa butter is squeezed from the unsweetened chocolate liquid. The hard, dry cakes left behind are ground into a fine powder. When mixed with sugar, this powder can be used to make that hot cocoa you drink on a cold day. To make the chocolate you eat, sugar and more cocoa butter are added to the unsweetened chocolate liquor. Other ingredients might also be added for flavor, including milk or vanilla.
TYPES OF CHOCOLATE
There are many ways to eat chocolate, but just a few types of chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate is used for baking. Semisweet chocolate, also called dark chocolate, is often used in homemade cookies, cakes, and other treats. Milk chocolate is eaten in bars or used as a coating on candy. White chocolate is a type of chocolate, too. It contains cocoa butter, but no other nonfat chocolate solids. It is used mainly as a candy coating. Today, milk chocolate is the most popular type of chocolate. What kind of chocolate do you like best? What’s your favorite way to eat chocolate?
FOOD OF THE GODS
Chocolate came originally from the Americas . The ancient Maya Indians called cocoa beans the “food of the gods.” In 1519, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés discovered a city built by the Aztec Indians in what is now Mexico . The Aztecs gave Cortés a special drink called “chocolatl,” which meant “warm liquid.” It was the favorite drink of the Aztec king Montezuma. Cortés conquered the Aztecs and carried cocoa beans back to Spain . There, chocolate became a favorite drink of the nobility, especially after sugar was added. Chocolate then spread throughout Europe and later the rest of the world.
