What is rock candy made of?

People who have eaten rock sugar will inevitably be curious about it, because rock sugar looks crystal clear on the outside, but they don’t know what material it is made of. In fact, rock sugar is first boiled and then water is added to dissolve the sugar and form rock sugar crystals. In addition to traditional professional techniques, you can also make rock sugar at home using folk methods. Although the color of the rock sugar may vary, it is purely natural.

Production technology

Traditional production technology

Sugar solution preparation

Select 50kg of white sugar, add 10kg of clean water and stir well to make the sugar fully dissolved in the water.

Cooking method

Before boiling, add vegetable oil into the interlayer of the double-layer pot, then pour the prepared sugar solution into the upper pot and boil over fire. When the sugar solution has been boiling for 5 to 6 minutes, add 0.5 kg of saturated alum solution at room temperature, stirring while adding to mix thoroughly. Use a thermometer to measure. When the temperature of the sugar liquid reaches 150℃, turn off the heat, cool it down and remove it from the pot. When serving, the best temperature is 115-120℃.

Crystallization method

Pour the sugar liquid out of the pot into a plate, place it on the earth pit and cover it with a clean quilt. Keep the temperature in the plate at around 90℃ on the day, and then lower it by 10℃ every day until the seventh day. If the temperature is not high enough, you can add fire to raise the pit temperature. Generally speaking, sugar liquid is afraid of cold but not heat during the crystallization process.

Health-care rock candy production technology

In recent years, a new type of rock sugar with health functions has emerged in the domestic market of China. That is, in the production process of polycrystalline rock sugar, some auxiliary materials (such as pear juice, chrysanthemum juice, etc.) are added to increase the health benefits of rock sugar.

The production process of health-care rock sugar is slightly different from that of ordinary polycrystalline rock sugar (old rock sugar), mainly reflected in the use of juice or boiled water of auxiliary materials instead of traditional water in the production process. For example, pear juice is squeezed instead of ordinary water, and then it is boiled again with white sugar and crystallized to produce pear juice rock sugar; high-concentration chrysanthemum boiled water is used instead of ordinary water, and then it is boiled again with white sugar and crystallized to produce chrysanthemum rock sugar. However, during the production process, due to the presence of a certain amount of pear juice or chrysanthemum juice, the crystallization process often tends to be slow or impossible to crystallize, so it is necessary to add a natural auxiliary agent. Currently, only a few companies in China have mastered this production process.