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 Home > Sugar Free Menu > Sugar Free Cotton Candy Mix (FLOSS) > All About Cotton Candy!! Fun Facts, History, and How it is Made!
All About Cotton Candy!! Fun Facts, History, and How it is Made!
All About Cotton Candy!! Fun Facts, History, and How it is Made!
All About Cotton Candy!! Fun Facts, History, and How it is Made! fun facts about cotton * america celebrates national cotton candy day on december 7th * cotton candy was originally called fairy floss * in 1920 fairy floss was re-named cotton candy * cotton candy contains only one ingredient: sugar * until now there has never been sugar free cotton candy!!! a little about sugar cotton candy cotton candy - if you've ever been to a carnival, circus, amusement park, fair or any other type of large outdoor event with vendors selling a variety of trinkets, you've most likely had the chance to sample an odd yet delicious candy known as cotton candy also called candy floss or candy cotton. your parents probably made sure you didn't eat too much cotton candy though, right? and then preceded to tell you stories about how cotton candy will give you cavities so horrific your teeth would eventually fall out? well, maybe not quite that horrible, though i did once overhear a mother telling her son that about cotton candy. in truth, cotton candy isn't nearly so horrible as many make it sound. sure, cotton candy is almost purely sugar, but there isn't enough in cotton candy to make your teeth instantly form cavities. unless, of course, you eat cotton candy multiple times a day and several times a week. cotton candy doesn't contain all that much sugar - merely as much sugar as one would get drinking a can of an average soft drink. in fact, in a normal serving of cotton candy (about a 1 oz. cone) there are only about 100 calories - compared to anywhere from 130-170 calories in a can of non-diet soft drink. this fluffy and delightful candy is a novelty to children as well as adults. the process by which cotton candy is made has been around for over 100 years so chances are you could ask your grandparents about their first encounter with cotton candy and they'll tell you at great length how much it cost and how neat it was back in the day. it was forgotten for a while several decades ago, but cotton candy became an instant hit when suddenly it was mass-produced and became readily accessible to everyone - not just the ones going to a fair or circus. for many, the smell and scent are unforgettable - often times it makes one feel a bit nostalgic. fond memories are linked with it - days of happy and carefree youth, begging your parents to take you on the ferris wheel, and don't forget meeting your spouse at the fair grounds! now maybe you don't have all these memories - yours might be more recent; asking your parents to let you ride on a pony, your mother fretting that you're getting your hands and face all sticky because you can't quite get the entire mass of candy into your mouth (no matter how hard you try and turn it this way and that, it simply won't work), and of course, discovering that once you get even the tiniest bit of saliva onto the cotton strands, it turns into a very sticky mess and quickly loses the cotton like appearance. history of cotton candy most would assume that cotton candy came into existence in the late nineteenth century, but that's not correct. there are many different ideas where the first cotton candy was made. some say cotton candy originated in the central iranian city of yazd. iranians knew cotton candy as pashmak. still others argue that cotton candy was actually a popular trend in italy that began in the 1400's. however it is known that the old fashioned way of making cotton candy - or spun sugar as it was called - was to melt sugar in a pan and then use a fork to make strings of sugar over an upside down bowl. the sugar would then dry in strings and be served as a dessert. this process of making spun sugar wasn't practical in the least - especially not for mass production; it was simply too time consuming. even centuries later, in the eighteenth century, confectioners were making spun sugar desserts and decorations. a popular favorite among europeans were easter eggs made from spun sugar, as well as webs of gold and silver. generally these webs were made by the same method of using a utensil of some sort to make threads covering sweetmeats (candies without chocolate). delicate strands covered them, creating a "web". at other times, it was made into threads over an oiled rolling pin. all in all, the technique varied slightly and required different levels of cooking skill, but the end result was nearly always the same. however, due to the amount of skill needed to create these desserts, only the wealthy usually had it. very rarely did the average person get lucky enough to try some. candy makers william morrison and john c. wharton corrected these flaws though. in 1897 they created a machine that would melt the sugar and any flavoring and/or coloring and then use centrifugal force to push the melted mixture through a screen to create the strands of sugar. after the strands collect in a pan or bowl, they're twirled onto a paper or cardboard cone and ready to be served. cotton candy made one of its first world debuts in 1900 at the paris exposition and then again in 1904 at the st. louis world fair. (the ferris wheel also was one of the highlights of this particular fair, but that's another story!) at the st. louis world fair, morrison and wharton sold boxes of "fairy floss" for 25 cents a box. now, back in 1904, this was quite a bit. in fact, a box of fairy floss cost half the admission price to the world fair. despite the somewhat high price for the sugary concoction, the duo sold an astonishing 68,655 boxes ($17, 163.75 for those too lazy to do the math). about a year later, one candy store had already purchased a machine and was selling cotton candy for 5-10 cents. though it was at time called spun sugar and fairy floss, a new name for it emerged around 1920 in america. the name was none other than cotton candy. although this is the most common name for it, cotton candy still has a few alternative names throughout the world. for example, it is called candy floss in the united kingdom and is even still called fairy floss in other parts of the world. by the late 1940's, one company had created a machine that would revolutionize the cotton candy industry. then, in the 1970's, another company changed it forever by creating an automatic cotton candy machine. not only did it make cotton candy on a mass scale, but it also packaged it automatically. thanks to these two major changes, cotton candy can be bought in numerous stores as well as at traditional places such as carnivals and circuses. how cotton candy is made? the process first involves the sugar melting into a liquid form that is spun inside of the cotton candy machine. next, the machine forces the liquid state of the candy through small holes that shape and then cool the liquid sugar. when it finally cools, the sugar changes back from a liquid state to a solid state where it can be collected and served on a stick waiting for you to indulge this tasty treat! how can you make sugar free cotton candy when the one ingredient it is made out of is sugar!? that answer is for us to know and you to never find out! many artificial sweeteners cause the cotton candy to become gritty, crunchy, and nothing like the original cotton candy that we all remember. at sugar free candy man we have been working day and night to find a mixture of sugarless products that tastes, melts and feels like original cotton candy. it has been a long wait, but it is finally here! we have finalized our sugar free, sugarless, no sugar cotton candy. there are many flavor varieties in sugar free too! did you think we would stop with just one sugar free flavor! there are cherry, watermelon, apple, raspberry, mint, grape, lemon, orange, sour orange, bubble gum, banana, and original sugar free pink vanilla. we are excited to offer a sugar free version of cotton candy to diabetics, atkins dieters, low-carb dieters, all watchers of weight, health nuts, dentists, adults and children alike. it is great to have a sugarless version of cotton candy to savor in your mouth and not give you cavities!! cotton candy sugar free sugar less sugarfree sugarless atkins low-carb lowcarb sugarfree diabetics diabetes dentists dentist
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