Sugar candy

Sugar candy is any candy whose primary ingredient is sugar. The main types of sugar candies are hard candies, fondants, caramels, jellies, and nougats.

The oldest sugar candies are presumed to have been made where the sugar cane plant was domesticated. Sugar cane probably originated in Papua New Guinea, and from there was taken to Southeast Asia and other Pacific Islands, and ultimately to India and China. From India, sugar spread to the Arab states and eventually to Europe.

Chemically, sugar candies are broadly divided into two groups: crystalline candies and amorphous candies.Crystalline candies are not as hard as crystals of the mineral variety, but derive their name and their texture from their microscopically organized sugar structure, formed through a process of crystallization, which makes them easy to bite or cut into. Fudge, creams, and fondant are examples of crystalline candies. Amorphous candies have a disorganized crystalline structure. They usually have higher sugar concentrations, and the texture may be chewy, hard, or brittle. Hard candies, such as lollipops, caramels, nut brittles and toffees are all examples of amorphous candies, even though some of them are as hard as rocks and resemble crystals in their overall appearance.

Crystalline candies are chemically described as having two phases, because the tiny, solid sugar crystals are suspended in a thick liquid solution. These are also called grained candies, because they can have a grainy texture. Amorphous candies are have only one phase, which is either solid or liquid, and do not have a grainy texture, so they may be called ungrained.

Commercially, candies are often divided into three groups, according to the amount of sugar they contain:

Each of these three groups contains both crystalline (grained) and amorphous (ungrained) candies.

Historically, sugar candy was used for pharmaceutical preparations as well as food uses. The sugar candy was used to disguise the unpleasant taste of the drug ingredients. Cough sweets and some other drugs show this heritage in the form of sugar tablets containing drugs, active drug ingredients being added to hard candies, and panned sugar coatings surrounding unpalatable pills.

...
Wikipedia