Make homemade rock candy with these tips and tricks and answers to frequently asked questions. A fun science experiment and treat for kids! Rock candy takes 5-7 days to grow, but the process is fun to watch!
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With kids out of school earlier than planned this year we decided to make rock candy again! We've updated this post with new photos and a video from our most recent batch of rock candy. Like last time, we made A LOT of jars of syrup. Like 8 cups of water and 20 cups of sugar worth. That fills 12 small jars. You DO NOT need to make this much. As long as you keep the ratio the same it will work the same! Our rock candy crystals have come out in varying sizes over the years. There are a lot of factors that come into play, but regardless they taste delicious!
Grab a bag of sugar out of your pantry, a few wooden skewers or rock candy sticks (cotton string works too), empty jars, and food coloring and let's get started!
Homemade Rock Candy is easy to make, it just takes patience.
There are so many variations using string, sticks, etc. It's a beautiful science project and sweet treat all in one. It does take time, and the end results can vary. There's a science to it and that's all part of the fun! Just know this... YOU NEED A WHOLE LOT OF SUGAR. A LOT. You can start with a 1:2 water/sugar ratio, but we've had better luck just shy of a 1:3 water sugar ratio. So if you have 4 cups of water, you'll need between about 10 cups of sugar to make the perfect sugar syrup.
Scroll to the bottom for some frequently asked questions for making rock candy.
How to Make Rock Candy on a Stick
Homemade Rock Candy Recipe
Make homemade rock candy with these tips and tricks and answers to frequently asked questions. A fun science experiment and treat for kids!
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Servings: 6
Calories: 50kcal
Cost: $5
Equipment
- funnel
- glass jars
- clothespins
- large pot
Ingredients
- Granulated sugar lots of sugar
- Water
- Food Coloring concentrated for brighter colors
- Wooden Candy Sticks or Bamboo Skewers
- flavoring optional, Lorann is my favorite brand
Instructions
- Trim down your skewers to a reasonable size to fit in whatever jars or cups that you will be using. You'll also want to get rid of the point. Dip them in water, then roll in sugar.
- Let the sticks dry completely and set aside. This will give the sugar a base (something to stick to when it starts to crystallize).
- Heat water on medium-high heat in. a saucepan or large pot (depending on how much syrup you want to make) When it starts to simmer/boil begin adding sugar until you reach a 1:2 to just shy of a 1:3 water-sugar ratio. The mixture will take longer to dissolve the more sugar you add (totally normal). Keep stirring with a wooden spoon until completely dissolved. Remove from heat. CAUTION: it is very HOT!
- Ladle the syrup into your jars using a funnel to catch spills. Add food coloring and flavorings to each jar, if you’d like wouldn't grape, cherry, orange or lemon flavoring be delicious?).
- Allow the liquid in the mason jars to cool down a bit. Warm or room temperature. Attach a clothespin to each skewer (the ones you dipped in sugar and let dry) and place in the jar.
- Place your jars in a safe location and watch the crystals grow!
Notes
- You can create as much or as little syrup as you'd like as long as you keep the same sugar/water ratio. You are making a nice, sticky, sugary syrup.
- If after 24 hours you don't see any crystal growth, pour each jar of syrup back into the pan (separately) and add more sugar. ¼ c. or so and heat once more until it is a syrup consistency. Roll the sticky skewers in sugar and add once more to the jar after the syrup has cooled down to be warm (not hot) or room temperature.
- Make sure the skewer isn't touching the bottom or sides of jar/glass. They need room to grow. One skewer per jar works best for regular sized jars.
Nutrition
Calories: 50kcal
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Day 2. You may notice sugar crystals forming along the bottom of the jar, (most likely from any sugar solution that didn’t dissolve all the way and is settling at the bottom) and there will be a crust on the top surface.
After 5-7 days you can eat your rock candy! Allow the syrup to drain off then set the rock candy on a baking sheet to dry.
Our beautiful blue rock candy broke as we pulled it out of the jar. I accidentally had the stick too close to the bottom, and the crystals attached to the sugar residue growing on the bottom. It was the only blue jar we had, everything else was red, yellow and green! Oh well.
We had a great time watching them grow and sampling the finished product. We've made rock candy a few times and it is generally ready to pull from the syrup between day 5 and day 7. I've seen others recommend allowing the sticks to sit for 1-2 weeks. Just pull them out when they are to your liking. My kids are always anxious to eat them as soon as they can!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Can you make more than one stick of rock candy in each jar?
If you attempt to do more than one skewer/jar, use a wide mouth jar.
How do you drain the rock candy?
Hold the lollipop over the jar or paper towels to let most of it drip off and then set it on a cookie sheet to dry.
There will be crystallized sugar in the bottom of your jars/glasses. Just run them in hot water and chip it out with a butter knife.
How long will rock candy last?
The shelf life for rock candy, if kept in a dry location, is 1 year.
Can I use a disposable foam cup for making rock candy?
Nope. It has to be glass, and it's easier to watch the crystals grow in a clear glass jar!
Why didn't my rock candy grow crystals?
If crystals don't grow it is almost always due to lack of sugar.
If after 24 hours you don't see any crystal growth, pour the syrup back into the pan and add more sugar. ¼ c. or so and heat once more until it is a hot syrup consistency. Only pour and heat one jar at a time if you used different colors of syrup. Roll the sticky skewers in sugar and add once more to the jar after the syrup has cooled down.
Is this frustrating to do? Yep. I know, because I've done it before!
Can you re-use rock candy syrup to make more crystals?
This is probably the most asked question that readers have e-mailed me over the years. I have not tried to re-use the syrup, but I don't see why you couldn't add another stick (covered in dry sugar) into it and grow another more. It might be worth reheating it to test and make sure that it is still saturated, but you have nothing to lose except a bit of time.
Should You Cover Your Rock Candy Jars?
I had no fear of insects or little fingers messing with them so I did not cover mine.
Here's are a few more tips for making homemade rock candy:
- Make sure your glass/jars are clear and CLEAN.
- Make sure your water/ sugar ratio is AT LEAST 1:2- just shy of a 1:3. You want a thick, saturated sugar syrup mixture.
- Place in a WARM, SUNNY location if you’d like to grow crystals quicker. They will be smaller crystals. If you want larger crystals, place it in a place away from direct sunlight. Our crystals are small because we grow ours on a windowsill. We like seeing the light shine through the glass and watching the crystals grow.
Eryn says
After going back and rereading through the process and materials, I wonder if we shouldn't have used the sticks we did. It looks like you guys used wood instead of the candy sticks (like the type you would use for cake pops). I wonder if that makes any difference. Maybe if we don't see any growth after three days we will start over using kabob skewers in hopes it will work better.
Eryn says
Just curious but....my daughter and I are using this as her science project and after one day the glasses looked a little odd. We did three glasses and the surface all have the crystals on top but none on the actual candy sticks. Is that normal? Are we doing this right? We made sure to saturate and roll them in sugar but the sugar base has come off in the water. Please help!
Brandy says
Ours did that too! I don't think we noticed crystals until growing until day 3 or so. By day 7 we almost had to chip the top layer a bit to pull the sticks out. We've made this and had it fail too. If by day 3 (4 at the latest) you don't see any growth, go ahead and heat the syrup up and try again. The fact that your syrup is hardening a bit is a good sign that you used enough sugar. I know you can make it with string too instead of wooden skewers. I'm not sure about the lollipop sticks. Good luck! 🙂
Julie W says
We put our skewers through unbleached coffee filters to keep the dust and pet hair out of our jars but allow for evaporation. It seemed to work well. Also, when we made this during a high humidity period it was a complete failure (but still fun.)
Lindsay McClanahan Jackson says
We used to do this when I was a kid, but instead of skewers we used string.
Brandy says
My son is making some for cubscouts right now with string! Works the same! 🙂
alyssa says
smart idea and im sure it tastes good imma do it in class for an expirement!!!!!!!!!!!!! XP
alyssa says
😛
DxRj says
If you are having problems making the rock candy, here is a tip that might help.
Unlike the article says, warm, humid areas do not help the crystals form at all! Heat evaporates the water, yes, driving the sugar to crash out of the solution (LeChatelier's principle). This cannot happen in humid environments. The sugar solution in a warm environment won't always come out stuck to the stick like you want it to though. In order to make the sugar crash out into the nice cubic pattern stuck to the stick, you want to get the stick in the syrup solution while it is still warm/hot, then immediately store in a cool, dry place. A warm place will cause the sugar to not want to join the crystalline structure on the stick and might not even cause any sugar to come out of solution (warm liquids can hold more solute).
Background: Master's degree in Organic Chemistry, where crashing compounds out of solutions is common practice.
mamajamie says
We tried several years ago to make rock candy without success. We'll give it a try with your recipe.
mamajamie says
We tried several years ago to make rock candy without success. We'll give it a try with your recipe.
Kierst says
oh my goodness. It's like you were reading my mind! I came to your blog today, specifically looking for this exact post! I'm totally weirded out.
Brandy says
That's funny! Stacy and I do things like this all the time. It must be the Whitaker genes 🙂
ba78370e-ebee-11e2-87d5-000bcdcb471e says
adult candy
Wilma Flintstone says
How would you go about adding flavor please?
Brandy says
Wilma,
I would just add a few drops of flavoring to each jar/glass before putting in your stick.
jamix3fiasco says
Just a thought, it seems like the darker colors did better. Maybe attracted more sunlight. Yellow and pink seem to be smallest and are also the most translucent.
Brandy says
That is interesting and did seem to be the case with ours!
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Robert Braun says
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Robert Braun says
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Robert Braun says
I love this activity. I have 3 daughters and we made this one of the nights events during a 12 girl sleep over. I used the smaller mason jars and labeled each jar with the girls names. I did a test 2 weeks before and found that you really need to have a very good sugar base started on each stick to get the best results. We used the solid food coloring and hard candy flavoring. To help with keeping the bugs away I used some of those outdoor pop up nets you use for outdoor dinners over your plates. The girls loved that they got to see a progress report every evening on their Instagrams. Day seven they were all over after school to collect their rock candy. Thank you
Robert Braun says
3 drops of flavoring is perfect for each jar.
Brandy says
Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with making rock candy! And THANK YOU for giving us the right ratio for flavorings. I've had several readers ask about flavoring the candy, but I've only made it with straight sugar for my kids.
Robert Braun says
Your welcome. 🙂