Since childhood I’ve preferred soft peppermint candy sticks.
http://ep.yimg.com/ay/blaircandy/bob-s-soft-peppermint-sticks-12oz-17.jpg
I think it tastes better than hard peppermint candy.
How do they make soft peppermint candy in comparison to hard candy? Why is it soft?
Both candies are made by cooking sugar into a syrup and adding flavoring and coloring. Starlight mints (the hard candies) are made by cooking sugar and corn syrup. So they’re basically the same thing, more or less.
When making candy, the final texture is determined by the highest temperature the sugar syrup reaches. The starlight mints are cooked to a higher temperature than the sticks so that the final product has little to no water and will form a clear, hard candy that is brittle when it cools. (The white color is due to air bubbles that are trapped when the candy is shaped.) The sticks, on the other hand, are cooked to a cooler temperature and have more water, are far less brittle, and remain soft. Sugar is also hygroscopic, which means that it absorbs water; this is why the sticks remain soft and starlight mints get sticky and gross over time.
Thank you MsRobyn. Quite interesting.
If you still care enough, there are TV shows that show how various candies are made; the Food Network’s “Unwrapped” and (IIRC) some episodes of “How It’s Made” come to mind. It’s quite fascinating how food manufacturers use science to turn the same basic ingredients into very different final products.
I’ll look for those shows. My grandmother made pecan pralines. They are very soft. Even softer than soft peppermint candy sticks. It would be interesting to see hard candies made.