What Kind of Sugar Is Used to Make Cotton Candy?

Spinning sucrose into candy is a snap with the cotton candy machines that are ubiquitous at carnivals and town fairs across the country. And while regular table sugar will yield the tasty treat, known alternately as fairy floss and candy floss, the secret ingredient of cotton candy sugar involves a bit of the added artificial color and flavoring called flossine.

Table Sugar

Beet sugar or cane sugar processed into sucrose is usable in most commercial-grade cotton candy makers. However, fine sugar mixed with flossine is recommended. Flossine is available where the units are sold and rented and is merely the flavoring and coloring that turns the plain white fluffy clouds of sugar into the pink and blue cone-stemmed treats at the fair.

Process

Cotton candy is made when sugar is heated to liquid and then forced through a spinning machine into small holes in the unit. As the threads or "floss" spin out of the rotating machine, they are twirled onto a paper cone.

History

While the notion of melting sugar into tasty treats has been around for hundreds of years, credit for the first fairy floss has been given to American inventors William J. Morrison and John C. Wharton, whose patented centrifugal sugar spinner was center stage at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

Science

Sucrose, or sugar, is a carbohydrate molecule composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen: C12H22O11. It is commonly derived from sugar cane or sugar beet and has a melting point of 186 degrees C.

Machines

Cotton candy makers come in a variety of sizes and models, from children's versions to industrial models designed for long-term use to yield a profit. The sugars used in the commercial machines can be purchased where the units are sold or rented. However, the carnival denizens usually add flossine, which also can be purchased onsite or online, to fine sugar to make their own, less expensive cotton candy mix. Today, colors and flavorings run the rainbow.

References

• Food Time Line
• History of Cotton Candy
• Candy Science

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish