Fairy Floss Origins
It is hard to imagine circuses, carnivals, and fairs without the ubiquitous pink clouds of spun sugar called Fairy Floss. When this yummy treat made its debut around the beginning of the twentieth century, it became something of an overnight sensation, growing in popularity from the start. Since then, people young and old around the world have enjoyed the fluffy pink confection.
A predecessor of cotton candy existed as early as the fourteenth century. Skilled cooks would bring sugar to its melting point, then drizzle fine threads of it over greased forms. When it hardened, this spun sugar would form a delicate web, which would be served as an elegant sweet or used as part of a more elaborate dessert. Spun-sugar Easter eggs made using this technique were particularly prized in Europe.
The origins of Fairy Floss as we know it today are somewhat ambiguous, with four individuals being credited with its development.
In 1897, William Morrison and John C. Wharton, candy makers from Tennessee, invented a machine that spun molten sugar into fine filaments. Their machine used centrifugal force to throw the melted sugar through a screen. The spun sugar was then lightly twisted around a paper cone.
In 1900, Thomas Patton received a separate patent for his way of producing the sweet, which used a gas-fired rotating disk to stream the molten sugar through a fork. A fourth man, a dentist named Lascaux from Louisiana, also receives some credit for coming up with and distributing the sugary snack from his practice, though he never held a patent or a trademark. Presumably, the benefits he enjoyed were largely related to an increase in business of a dental nature.
In 1904, Morrison and Wharton introduced their confection on a grand scale at the St. Louis World’s Fair. They called their creation "Fairy Floss" and sold it for twenty-five cents a box. Although this was no small sum at the time, people were apparently willing to pay for the sugary novelty. Morrison and Wharton sold over 68,000 boxes at the fair.
In 1920, Fairy Floss was given the name “cotton candy.” Although this is what it is most commonly known as in the United States, in Great Britain it is called candy floss, and Australians have retained the term “fairy floss.”
Traditionally, fairy floss was pink and tasted like sugar. Modern tastes have brought about such flavor innovations as sour apple, lime, blueberry, raspberry, banana, bubblegum, and even “cake batter.” With variations in flavor come the expected variations in color, and it is not uncommon to see blue, purple, yellow, and green floss. Although the original pink with a slight flavour is still the most popular with current crowds of all ages.
Fairy Floss must be kept perfectly dry—it cannot tolerate any moisture at all. In contact with any source of dampness, it will immediately begin to dissolve into a sticky mass of liquefied sugar. Although it is composed of mostly sugar, a good-sized cone of the fluffy stuff contains less sugar than a can of regular soda and has about 100 calories.
Here’s something for the sciency nerds. Everyone else can skip this paragraph.
Given that the amorphous material is highly hygroscopic, it can quickly pick up 1-2 grams of water per 100 g solids but will still be in the glassy state at room temperature however with a slightly sticky surface. Companies selling and distributing bags have run into the problem of collapse and recrystallization of the product during transportation, resulting in less than 7 days shelf life. We hypothesize that the stability is directly related to the position of the product (moisture/temperature) on the state diagram and that moisture gain through the package or temperature abuse cause loss of product integrity. Our objective was to study the stability of cotton candy at 25 and 35 C at relative humidities from dry to 45%. Both visual measurements and X-Ray diffraction using a Seimens 5002 powder diffractometer were used. We found that at 33% RH and either temperature the cotton candy collapsed within 3 days while in < one day at 45% RH. This means packaging is needed to prevent moisture gain of about 4 grams over the desired shelf life. At 11% RH (~1% moisture) the cotton candy was stable for 9 months at 25 and 45 C but collapsed and crystallized in one day above 50 C, which should be the upper temperature limit.
Interesting!!! Be prepared we may ask questions!
