​​How is Cotton Candy made? Cotton Candy is a light and fluff | Curiosity Tea

​​How is Cotton Candy made?

Cotton Candy is a light and fluffy sugar confectionery which resembles cotton wool.
First step in making cotton candy is converting the granular sugar into fine filaments. To do this, solid sugar is placed in a large, stainless steel hopper. This hopper has a tapered bottom, which funnels the sugar into the extruder. The extruder is a rotating metal cylinder, which has holes along its sides and is equipped with a heating element. Inside the extruder, the sugar is heated such that it melts and becomes a molten liquid. The spinning extruder then throws the strands of liquid sugar out in all directions through the holes in its sides. As it exits the extruder, the liquid sugar cools and forms solid strands. These strands, which are the fibers used to make cotton candy, are collected in a large circular pan surrounding the extruder. To prevent coagulation of the strands, moisture is minimized during this phase of manufacture.
In machines that produce a small amount of cotton candy, such as those found at carnivals, the strands of cotton candy are then collected by the machine operator. He takes a cardboard cone or a stick and passes it around the sides of the collection pan. As the cardboard is passed around, the sticky sugar strands adhere to it. When enough is collected on the cone, the cotton candy is sold to the consumer immediately. The situation is slightly different for automated cotton candy machines. In these machines, the strands of cotton candy are pulled onto a conveyor belt and transferred into a sizing container. Here the candy strands are combined into a continuous bundle.