How to Make Flavored Rock Candy

Making your own flavored rock candy is very easy and lots of fun. Eating the candy is even more fun. Your kids will love helping you make this inexpensive project, and they'll be fascinated by the colorful candy crystals growing more each day. Except for boiling the water, all but the youngest children can handle making their very own yummy lemon-flavored rock candy. And watching the crystals grow day by day is half the fun.

Things You'll Need

• Wool yarn or cotton string Glass jars Butter knife 1 cup boiling water Spoons Sugar 1/2 to 1 tsp. lemon extract or oil Food coloring 1 package lemon-flavored Lifesavers Paper towels

Instructions

1. Tie one or two lemon Lifesavers to the end of a piece of wool yarn or cotton string. This provides a little weight and stability to the string as it grows crystals, and adds a little color and flavor. Tie the other end of the string to the center of a butter knife. Hang the string into an open glass jar, and set the butter knife on top of the jar. Make sure the string isn't too long; it shouldn't touch the sides of the jar, and the Lifesavers shouldn't touch the bottom.

2. Boil 1 cup water. Remove from heat. Add teaspoonfuls of sugar to the boiled water, stirring well to dissolve following each addition. Keep adding and stirring sugar into the solution, making sure the sugar doesn't accumulate on the bottom of the jar.

3. Add 1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring to the sugar solution, and stir it well. Taste a spoonful, being sure to blow on it first. It still may be pretty hot. If it tastes weak, stir in another 1/2 teaspoon flavoring.

4. Add food coloring to the solution one drop at a time, stirring after you add each drop. Keep adding drops of color and stirring until the solution turns the color that you would like your rock candy to be.

5. Pour the candy mixture into the glass jar, making sure you don't dump any undissolved sugar in it. Drop the strung Lifesavers into the middle of the solution, and set the butter knife over the mouth of the jar. Put the jar where nobody will bother it and cover with a paper towel.

6. Inspect the string in the jar after about 24 hours. You'll see that solid crystals are growing on the string. Leave the jar in place for about a week. If the rock candy has grown as big as you want it to before then, remove the string from the solution. Otherwise, just wait out the rest of the week, and the candy crystals will stop growing on their own by then.

7. Remove the string of rock candy from the sugar solution. Hang it to dry in a clean jar until all the excess liquid drains from the crystals. Eat and enjoy your very own homemade flavored rock candy.

Tips & Warnings

• Flavoring extract or oil is better than fresh lemon juice, which contains acid that slows down the formation of the candy crystals.