h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm eating a lovely packet of fizzy cola bottles left over from my trip to the cinema last night. You know the sort just like a gummy jelly cola bottle but coated in what looks like sugar.

But I thought it can't be sugar as it is fizzy...it must be a blend of sugar and something else. I'm guessing something like crystalised citric acid or something similar.

Does anyone know what it is and is it possible to make fizzy sweets at home?

This sounds like a Gosho question. I'm sure you'll get a detailed answer once he's out of bed.

From what I know, you're broadly on the right lines. Crystallised citric, malic or tartaric acid will give you the 'tart' taste. I believe that good fizzy cola bottles also have a bit of the 'popping candy' effect, whereby the moisture in your saliva will cause small crystals to burst open, hence giving you a more 'fizzy' texture.

B

Bicarbonate of soda added?

az

Do they actually fizz, as in produce bubbles of gas, or does it just taste like real fizzy things taste?

It depends on the sweet, although I can't say I've made all of these sweets so some of this might be speculation.

In the case of something cooked, like cola bottles, it's probably just as B describes - either malic or tartaric acid added to the mix. It can't be bicarb cos bicarb will make it foam - that's how they make honeycomb. Leastways, that's how we made it at the little sweet place I worked at in Accrington.

However, in the case of non-cooked sweets, like those made from paste such as hard tablets and lozenges (Swizzels, Sharps Extra Strong Mints, that sort of thing), you can add bicarb for fizziness. That white powder you find in the middle of sherbert lemons is also a mixture of powdered sugar (for sweetness), acid (for tartness) and bicarb (for fizz).

Anything else you want to know? Like how they actually get the powder inside the sherbert lemon? How they get chocolate around a liquid centre?

Sorrey, more than my than job's worth

Maybe the cooked/non-cooked thing is a bit misleading. It's more to do with water, since bicarb will fizz as soon as you put it in anything moist. Paste sweets are dry so you can include bicarb in the mix. Even sweets boiled as high as honeycomb (around 310-320°F), which have almost all the water boiled out of them and are super-saturated, will foam up with addition of honeycomb.

Will foam up with the addition of bicarb

But bicarb will only fizz if there is a source of acid present.

The honeycomb recipe was thus:

Water, sugar, glucose syrup. Boil until the right colour of brown (around 310F), add bicarb, pour onto a metal slab as it's foaming, allow to cool and cut into squares.

Isn't there acid present in our saliva? Just enough to make bicarb go fizzy there - doesn't actually have to foam up, just create the fizzy sensation.

I'm just guessing about this.


az

The normal recipe for honeycomb has vinegar as well, doesn't it?

Or is it powdered tartaric acid?

As far as I'm aware it's not usual to add vinegar. I do know that we didn't add any. Sugar undergoes extensive chemical changes when boiled to those sorts of temperatures - perhaps some kind of acid is produced in the process.

**remembers Odo's only experiment with honeycomb, which culminated in a rapidly-expanding yellow monstrosity being carried hastily out of the kitchen door before it hit the ceiling**

B

A tad too much bicarb, I think.

The recipe did say a tablespoon, to which I immediately thought: 'no, that's far too much'.

But, does she listen to me?

B

These are the little blighters I'm talking about...

http://www.sweetiebag.com/sweets-chocolates/fizzy-cola-bottles-650.asp

it does say in the recipe acid I wonder what sort and if you can buy it from a supermarket like a bag of sugar. I'm thinking of making a giant version of the fizzy ones above. Just like these guys have made a giant version of the normal ones here...

http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project.php?projectID=83

Hi Az,

Saliva is slightly alkaline as this helps protect the enamel on the teeth which is attacked by acids. This is why bulimics and people who drink cola - which is acidic - tend to get really rotten teeth. The bacteria which form plaque also secrete acid which is why this damages teeth.

F

Thanks Fathom ... this explains why my bicarb theory is crap and whatever.

Though I suggest that instead of a smiley after the word 'bulimics' you might consider a one.

Nice to hear from you,
az