The word "candy", according to Wikipedia, comes to us from the Latin “canamella”, which means “something other, than sugar cane”. We will not be lucky enough to know exactly when it was the first time when mankind has realized the beauty of properties of sugar. However, we know that more than two thousand years ago Indian Dalits roasted sugarcane in the fire, thus, obtaining some primitive caramel.
Although historians have argued that the very first and most popular delicacy was still honey, because it was available to everyone and does not require additional treatment. Special ingenuity was exhibited by the residents of Arabian countries and China, who prepared special candies, dipping nuts and fruit in honey.
Sugar, in the medieval period and later, was quite expensive and was considered as the exclusive privilege of the rich.
With regard to the development of the basics of the art of caramel, the pioneers include America, the United Kingdom, France, and many others. These are considered as the founders of a broad caramel production. In order not to generate unnecessary thinking about who is right and who enjoys the aura of mystery hanging over caramel, we should say that the popularity of this technology was found in the XIV-XVI centuries. In America, caramel was cooked in special deep pots. France and Russia were famous by a special distribution of candies on a stick - the so-called lolly pops. In the early caramel production there were used copper boilers, in which the sugar was heated with water on an open fire.
Confectionery accompany us throughout our life. Their taste is familiar to everyone from early childhood. The older we get, the more acute shortage of "happiness hormone” in the body we feel. It includes cakes, candies and other goodies. Candies are confectionery products made from one or more of candy mass, with various additives.
Here is the top 17 of the most interesting facts about candies:
For the first time, candies appeared in ancient Egypt. There was no sugar at that time yet, instead of it, people ate figs and honey. In the East, candies were made of almonds and figs, and in the Roman Empire people cooked nuts and poppy seeds with honey.
As it was established by German psychologists, the most romantic candies are those with strawberry filling.
In the early 19th century, wealthy ladies at dinner receptions discreetly hidden candies in handbags. All this was done due to the fact that there were no factories in Russia, and each confectioner prepared candies at his own recipe for every dinner party. Every recipe was kept in a secret.
The most famous candies are pralines. They were invented in 1663. The cook has prepared them specially for the French ambassador in Germany, and pralines still keep a record of sales in Germany and Switzerland.
Master of Food is a company that has produced the biggest box of chocolates for the global culinary show. The box width of 1.5 and 2.5 meters long included 800 kg of chocolates.
The most enormous candy is nicknamed Bear Hagi-Boy, with the height of 1.68 meters and weighing 633 kilograms.
The most cosmic sweet is Chupa Chups. In 1995, the Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station asked to send them these candies from Earth. The MCC decided that the most safe in weightlessness will be exactly this candy - lollipop.
The most unusual sweets in the world are the Finnish candies. Finns make them sour (without sweet taste), salty (for beer) and even with the taste of oil!
People whose work involves heavy physical exertion or mental work, are recommended to consume a small amount of sweet baked goods daily, because such foods contain thiamine, which eliminates fatigue, improves mood, activates mental abilities.
One piece of cake or cake with cream filling and biscuit dough contains about 300 calories, that is the same as contained in 1 banana + a glass of wine + 100 g of ice cream + 1 grapefruit.
The sweetest fruit is considered to be fig. It has an 80 percent sugar content, but at the same time it is considered as a good dietary product and an excellent alternative to the purchased sweets.
One of the sweetest substances in the world was produced in 2010. It is an artificial additive "neotame", which is 13 thousand times sweeter than sugar.
According to leading nutritionists, bananas are not less harmful than the store bought white bread and sweets, because they contain large amounts of sucrose.
To prevent digestive problems and a set of extra pounds, nutritionists recommend to control the consumption of dried fruit (interesting fact about sweet is the fact that the quantity of consumed figs per day should not exceed 4 - 6 pieces).
Oatmeal cookies are useful due to high content of fiber and considered as an effective product for cleaning the body of toxins, cholesterol absorption and output.
0.5 liters of Coke contain sugar, which is equivalent to 16 cubes.
In the United States there is a very popular medication called Obecalp, which is usually prescribed to children with health event of minor complaints. To understand the real purpose of this medicine, read this name on the contrary.
These were the most interesting facts about candies. What are your favorite ones?