Candy from Mexico might look and taste completely different from candy from England, America or Spain. Someone who has tasted candy from all of those other countries may we aware of the completely different flavors that similar ingredients can create. The word candy is said to have originated from the Persian words for ‘cane sugar’—Quandi or the Sanskrit word Khanda, meaning ‘piece of sugar’. Candy is technically used as an ‘umbrella’ word for anything sweet, such as chocolate, licorice, boiled sweets, chewy and soft sweets, gummies, taffy, marshmallow and any other type of confectionery.
Candy as a History
In ancient times candy was made largely from honey because sugar was not only a rare commodity, but also very expensive. The Ancient Greeks, Chinese and Egyptians, along with the Romans all used honey and nuts to coat fresh fruit and flowers. Nowadays sugared flowers are used as a garnish at some of the world’s top restaurants but not as commonly used sweets. During the Middle Ages candy was used as a throat soothing method, with honey and lemon as the main ingredients to sooth bad throats and colds. Other spices used were ginger, aniseed and cloves.
Candy was introduced to the America from England in the eighteenth century. A mere few of the American colonists were capable of working with sugar, but those who were and those who learned became sufficiently proficient to make their own sugar candies and those were the versions that Americans have become familiar with. Perhaps that is why ingredients from country to country don’t differ, but the flavors do. It could be something to do with the difference in methods that cause the candies to taste different in each place.
During the 1830’s the candy industry went through some very big changes in terms of technology. New machines for mass production were invented as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the mass production of candies made them far cheaper and far more accessible to the less well-off. Once the sweet treats hit the streets they appealed to just about everyone, which probably made the dentists extremely happy. There are generally two types of candy, divided into amorphous and crystalline, better known as hard candy and chewy candy.
