Snack Bar

Cotton Candy!

It tastes like sweet air, melts in your mouth and comes in the prettiest colours. Cotton candy has to be one of the most unique confections. For many of us, a trip to a carnival or theme park wouldn’t be complete without sucking down a big wad of cotton candy.

But when and where did this sugary dessert first come to be? Well, if you’re simply talking about a treat made from long strands of sugar, you can go all the way back to Italy in the 1400s. That’s when bakers would melt sugar in a pan and then use a fork to draw out long strings of melted candy. But the dessert, then called “spun sugar,” was difficult and time-consuming to make, so only the very rich could afford to eat it.

Then, in the 1890s, two candy makers, William Morrison and John C. Wharton, invented a machine that would melt sugar and then spin the gooey syrup around and around. As the syrup passed through a screen long strands of sugar would be created. The candy maker would then twirl a stick or a cone through the strands, collecting a big bunch of fluffy sugar into a cloud of candy.

The two men debuted their cotton candy machine in 1900 at the Paris Exposition and then brought it to the St. Louis World Fair in 1904. It was a huge hit, and people happily paid 25 cents per box for the candy, which — back then — was called fairy floss.

Since then, the process of making cotton candy hasn’t changed much — nor has its popularity.

• Cotton candy can be made any colour simply by adding food colouring to the sugar, but pink is the most popular style.

• Cotton candy is also called candy floss (mostly in the U.K.) and fairy floss. In France they call it barbe à papa, which translates to papa’s beard.

• Because it’s mostly made of air, one bag of cotton candy has only 180 calories, which isn’t too bad for a treat that’s bigger than your head. But make sure you brush your teeth well after eating!