Sweet & tasty, scientifically made

CHENNAI: Long time ago, a solid mass of spun sugar, fluffy and delightful in vanilla white or baby pink, embraced in a stick, was born. A cotton-like texture that tastes like sugar with no aroma, it was christened ‘cotton candy’. It wasn’t always kids’ stuff. In fact, its roots go back to the banquet tables of the European aristocracy, and at a time when sugar was so rare that it was kept under lock and key. Earlier, these fluorescent bright pink, yellow and orange cotton candies were often found on the beach or at carnivals. But for the first time, it has made its appearance at a mall in Chennai. Express Avenue Mall bags the honour of being the first to accommodate cotton candy under its roof. But wherever you go, whether to the beach or carnival, what strikes your attention the most? Watching the cotton candy makers, who spin a confection that looks like pillows of wool but melts in your mouth like a snowflake. This ‘magical’ cotton candy, also called as budhiya ke baal in the north and panju mittai in Tamil, however, was lost somewhere along the way. As a rags-to-riches story, cotton candy has travelled a journey through time and space, following its origins from a common table sugar to a fluffy mass of sheer sugary delight. Invented in 1899, cotton candy has travelled the world under a variety of aliases. It’s called candy floss in Great Britain, fairy floss in Australia, la barbe a papa or Papa’s beard in France, and zucchero filato or sugar thread in Italy. Though these delicate strands of sugar, creating a web, may lack the ‘wow’ factor that many other carnival sights, it has a magic of its own — that of food science. The making of a cotton candy follows the heating and cooling process of Physics. A scoop of  molten sugar put in a bowl is solidified in the air which is then caught in a larger bowl surrounding the spinning head. Left to operate for a while, the cotton-like product builds up on the inside walls of the larger bowl, at which point the vendor twirls a stick, around the rim of the large catching bowl. It then gathers the sugar strands which are served on a stick or in plastic bags. This simple caramelisation is tricky and appears to be a magic for many. Eating these cotton candies, no matter which method you use, simply doesn’t work. But once you get the tiniest bit of saliva onto the cotton strands, it turns into a sticky mess and quickly loses its cotton-like appearance. For Vandana, a BDS student, cotton candy is irresistable. “I have a sweet tooth. When I was a kid, these huge mass of cotton-like were one of my favourites. I always had trouble eating them, though. I used to get my hands and face all sticky because I can’t quite get the entire mass of candy into my mouth.” Rajeev Battula, brand manager of a boutique house, Misfits, is planning to celebrate the National Cotton Candy Day on November 7. “Cotton candy is usually ignored. But after I learnt that it involves a lot of science, I have relished the taste of it. In fact, I’m amused at its making. I enjoy eating panju mittai and like to be a kid again.”  Sold at Express Avenue Mall for a price of Rs 40 per stick, cotton candy has taken a whole new avatar in Chennai. Whether you want it in the shape of an umbrella, or a cone, the vendors can mould these sugar strands as per your specifications. Want to relive your childhood with a cotton candy? Well, it’s just a mall away!