28 December 2023 , 11:03
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Candy canes have become synonymous with Christmas, with the colourful sweets seen everywhere from cards and wrapping paper to movies during the festive period. But they originally started life as simple white sugary sticks that were a popular European treat.
In the 1600s, a German choirmaster is said to have then adapted the sticks into the shape we see today, inspired by a shepherd's crook - and his intention was supposedly to give children something to keep them happy whilst sitting through long church services at Christmas. However, they didn't become the peppermint-infused, striped sensation we know and love today until much more recently, in 20th-century America.
The experts at How It's Made explained how a blend of "art and science" is used to facilitate the "transformation of a few basic ingredients into this holiday staple" in a video posted on their YouTube channel. "In the United States alone nearly 2 billion candy canes are made each year," almost all of which are sold in the weeks leading up to Christmas itself, they explain.
But that doesn't mean that the companies that make them get most of the year off, instead they are busy all year round to meet the huge demand that will arrive during the festive season. Despite the colourful designs and long, changing history of the sweet treat, the ingredients have never deviated that much.
Sugar is still the base of the candy cane, along with corn syrup - which makes the canes beautifully shiny - and peppermint oil, or artificial flavours that are used to create the minty taste. The experts explain that how the canes themselves are made with these three ingredients - plus a few dashes of food colouring of course - is a "mesmerizing process".
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Huge copper kettles are used to heat corn syrup, sugar and water until hard threads are created, once this temperature has been reached the mixture is placed onto a cooling table before being split into two portions. One will be dyed with food colouring, and the other will be mixed with the peppermint oil flavouring. The undyed minty portion is then put onto a hook to allow it to aerate and turn into an "opaque white".
The red-dyed candy is turned into "long thin ropes" before laying onto the white candy, which requires a "keen eye for detail". Then a machine is used to cut each portion to the correct length and bend one end into the cane shape, they are then cooled to ensure they harden and maintain this classic festive shape.
Afterwards, each piece of candy cane is wrapped and the factory's machinery is capable of doing this job thousands of times per hour - to ensure that come the festive season, there are enough candy canes for everyone who wants one.
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