The Fascinating Story of Rock Candy
Rock candy has a fascinating backstory and a unique place in the candy kingdom. The history of rock candy reveals how it ricocheted from being an irreplaceable curative to a villainous substance to a favorite penny candy. The most intriguing aspect of this story is that rock candy is made of one ingredient. Sugar. Sugar. And sugar. And through history that sugar came from one place: sugar cane. The reason cane sugar, as opposed to fruit sugar, for example, is simple: cane sugar crystallizes.
From Sweet to Science: A Candy Like No Other
In fact, rock candy is one of the few foods that strays from its food group classification to be grouped as a crystal. It does not require any baking, mixing or stirring. Or for that matter, a recipe. Just fill a cup with sugar and water, let a string hang in it, and if you’re lucky rock candy will form. Just as fascinating is rock candy’s history and longevity. It’s old. Not retro candy old, but millennia old.
The History of Rock Candy and American Ingenuity
But why has rock candy been so popular for so long? In the early United States so esteemed was rock candy that in the early 1800s the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association, a group co-founded by Paul Revere, showcased rock candy at an exhibition. The purpose of the exhibition was to demonstrate the complexity of American ingenuity in making such things as, yes, rock candy.
More Than Just a Sweet Tooth: Medicinal Roots
The reasons for its popularity are perplexing, especially as rock candy has a comforting but mild flavor, as sugar on its own isn’t especially sweet. Perhaps the answer boils down to rock candy’s unique versatility. It was used as a medicine for soothing sore throats and easing stomach ailments. For countless generations, parents have given kids rock candy whenever a fever and sore throat reared its contagious head. Sometimes they added whiskey, honey and touch of lemon, a more or less medicinal whisky sour.
Home Remedies, Healing, and Oral History
The enslaved people of the nineteenth century used rock candy mixed with whiskey as a general panacea. In one interview of the Federal Writer’s Project, eighty-year-old Josephine Baccus recalled the medicine she used when young. People didn’t put much faith in doctors, she said, but used black and Samson snake root mixed with a bit of whisky and rock candy to cure such things as a bad appetite.
Even in 1893, when rock candy was broadly used as an inexpensive and readily available candy, the belief in its medicinal powers – especially when wed to whisky - didn’t budge. Said one advertisement “Physicians agree that pure rye whiskey is the most efficient as a tonic, and in combination with pure rock candy is unexcelled for pulmonary troubles.” Outside the sickroom, rock candy served a medicinal/fermenting purpose, giving solace to an older crowd in such spirited delights as the 19th century’s most popular salon drink, Rock n’ Rye.
Caught in the Crossfire: Prohibition and Its Impact
Rock candy may have had great medicinal value when coupled with spirits, but no one told that to the temperance crowd. They disparaged rock candy for its role in drink and closed down companies who were making it. Dryden and Palmer, a rock candy company that opened in 1880, claims to be the lone survivor of the prohibition-era ruckus.
A Sweet Symbol in American Life
Still, rock candy history shows its greatest role in American history has been as a candy. It appeared in mainstream culture such as one story in 1859, when a rough and ready adventurer was shown to have a softer side when carrying rock candy in his saddlebag to “give to the children as I went along.” In another piece protesting tax increases a few years later, the author railed that taxes are so bad, children sucking on their rock candy-stick are taxed.
A Simple Pleasure, A Brilliant Display
But rock candy made its most entrancing appearance in candy stores. For confectioners, rock candy must have been deliciously easy: just add sugar to water and let the crystallization process do what comes naturally -- forming big lumps of sugar crystals. For parents it was a treat that didn’t melt, didn’t leech colors, and wasn’t a sticky mess. One newspaper nicely describes it this way: “Good rock candy is always sought for. Pure rock candy is crystallized sugar. The best is always on a string, and when held up to the light is clear as glass.”
Evolution in Color and Form
Rock candy was also sold in be-dazzling bits, like tiny diamonds chips. Eventually, rock candy was sold on sticks, and color was added, so the once clear candy transformed into a near kaleidoscope of candy happiness. Rock candy was available in general stores, by hawkers on the street, and, eventually, in penny candy stores. For kids, the primary audience for rock candy, the varieties were intriguing. Rock candy on a string was a favorite, of course, where the very act of eating the candy was close to a performance.
The Science Experiment Generation
In the 20th century rock candy took on yet another guise. The candy that started as medicine was loved and loathed, that morphed into a benign treat, became the ultimate science project. The section of one newspaper in 1956 reported that first graders had embarked on explorations of rock candy making, using a recipe from the Weekly Reader, a children’s magazine. At home, mothers gave do-it-yourself science lessons to their children with sugar, water and a string. Lest you think rock-candy making was a snap, experts in some regions were quick to advise otherwise. Here is one article/recipe from 1965.
“Making this confection isn’t as simple as its water and sugar formula sounds, because it involves the natural process of crystallization and a great deal depends on atmospheric conditions…Dryden and Palmer, the only existing rock candy maker in the country has this suggested recipe for making small batches at home but they can’t guarantee the results.
Recipe Summary:
Boil two cups of sugar to one cup of water and boil to 240 Degrees F. on a candy thermometer or until a bit dropped on cool water forms a soft ball. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and pour into an earthen ware or glass container. Suspend a piece of string into the solution or insert a long thin twig into the syrup so the sugar crystals have something with which they can cling. Wait for crystallization of about one inch (this takes about a week or ten days).
Decorative Delight and Cocktail Companion
By the mid-1970s, rock candy morphed yet again, this time as a food decoration. Rock Candy added to punch to sweeten the taste and give it color. Rock Candy atop cupcakes, cakes, and cookies. Rock candy sprinkled on cake platters for a special zing.
How many ways were people using rock candy? The question will have to be unanswered. One piece in a newspaper reflects “Years ago you could buy rock candy on a string. It came in colors of clear and pink. Folks would sip coffee and chew the candy while visiting.” Coffee and a rock candy chew?
A Sweet Stirrer With a Spirited Past
One thing is certain. Just as rock candy has never left its medicinal roots, it hasn’t left alcohol too far behind, prohibitionists notwithstanding. Colorful rock candy on a stick made for a marvelous cocktail stirrer and decorative sidekick. Recipes merging rock candy and rock candy cocktails emerged and are emerging still. Here is one of them – modern take-off of Rock n’ Rye from Guns and Gardens Magazine.
Rock and Rye (Infused Whiskey Liqueur)
Ingredients for infusion:
Rye whiskey + orange & lemon peel
10 dried cherries, cinnamon, clove, star anise, horehound herb
1 6″ stick of cherry rock candy
Method: Infuse whiskey with peels and spices for 3 days, then add rock candy and cherries for another day; strain and serve over ice
Why the History of Rock Candy Still Matters Today
From its medicinal beginnings to its role in prohibition controversies and science classrooms, the rock candy history is a reflection of how something so simple can evolve across generations. Its enduring charm lies not just in its sugary sparkle, but in its ability to adapt whether as a remedy, a treat, or a decorative delight.
