The Bottom Line: Sweet facts about cotton candy!
The Full Story:
- There is less sugar in Cotton Candy than in a serving of soda.
- Cotton Candy is a fat free food.
- Modern cotton candy machines melt the sugar and spin it at thousands of revolutions per minute, using centrifugal force to shoot the molten liquid through tiny holes. When it hits the air, it immediately hardens into miles of fine threads.
- Threads of cotton candy are thinner than a human hair.
- Spun sugar has been around since the 17th century. Chefs whisk melted sugar into thin strands with a fork, using them to decorate cakes and pastries.
- Other versions of candy floss: Iran has “pashmak” (Persian for “wool-like”) with sesame added to the sugar before melting; the Himalayan nation of Bhutan has “ngathrek golop lhakpa”—spun sugar with butter tea and chili pepper; China has “dragon’s beard candy,” with peanuts and coconut (and a texture like horsehair); and Turkey has “Pi˛smaniye”—spun sugar blended with buttered flour.