What exactly is the process that makes sour candies so sour?
What are the magic ingredients that create that pucker?
How do they get that infamous sandy coating?
And why do you like it so much?
This is what really makes sour candy sour.
Sour candies are typically made by adding a powdery coating to a fruit-flavored candy
product.
This method is the reason why when you bite into a piece of Sour Patch Kids candy, or
a Sour Punch Straw, you get that sweet sensation with a bit of pucker all at the same time.
Making the candy in a way that brings sour flavors out right on the surface helps deliver
the super-sour flavor consumers want, and manufacturers are using more acid to make
it happen.
Most of our favorite sour candies incorporate one or more types of acids.
Citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, and fumaric acid are the most common choices,
but there may be other types incorporated depending on the type of candy and the flavor
goal.
Because different acids add a different level of sourness, manufacturers carefully select
an acid mixture to create the perfect recipe.
"In my tongue, in the side.
It's so sour right now."
Although sour candies use a number of acids to get their mouth-puckering flavor, citric
acid is one of the most prevalent.
"And in that mixing bowl we're adding citric acid, flavor, and color."
Citric acid is a common element found in lemons, limes, grapefruits, and essentially all other
citrus fruits.
If you've ever bitten directly into a lemon and felt your cheeks pucker up, you have citric
acid to thank.
It's a chemical process that activates the sour taste receptors on your tongue, triggering
that reaction some of us crave.
Citric acid is naturally found in citrus fruits, but to use it in candies it must be commercially
produced in large quantities.
This is accomplished by fermenting sugar with microorganisms, creating one of the most popular
ingredients to utilize not only in sour candies, but as an additive in other foods, supplements,
and even cleaning products.
Sour candies are known for that immediate pucker hit that comes as soon as you put them
on your tongue.
But some sour candies, like Warheads, are also known for just refusing to let that sour
sensation die down.
For some candy fans, that's exactly what they're craving, and they can thank malic acid for
that.
Malic acid is also natural, and can be found in fruits like apples, apricots, and cherries,
all of which have more mellow tartness than lemons and limes.
In sour candy, it both boosts the sour factor and brings out more of the fruit.
It's also often coated in palm oil during candy making, which then melts in your mouth
to create a long, slow release of sour flavor.
Part of the reason our taste buds react to sour candy is because of its pH level.
The term pH stands for power of hydrogen, and is a way to measure how acidic or basic
any given compound is.
The scale runs from 1 to 14, with water measuring at 7, which basically means neutral.
The closer something is to 1 on the scale, the more acidic it is.
A very strong acid might have a pH of 1 or 2.
Sour candies are packed with different types of food safe acid, and as a result they have
a pH level comparable to battery acid.
As it turns out, any tangy candy will typically have a pH around a 3 or a 2.5 on the scale,
while sour candies measure around 1.8.
But Warheads Sour Spray wins the crown as it comes with a 1.6 pH level.
The pH for battery acid is 1, just shy of the Warheads brand, so it's no wonder the
acidity in sour candies causes our eyes to widen.
"This is where we add the pucker power."
A big reason we're prone to enjoying the zing from sour candy is our taste buds.
Adults have an average of 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds.
Most, of course, are on your tongue, but others coat the roof of your mouth and run all the
way back to your throat.
These receptors can recognize four main tastes including sweet, salty, bitter, and of course,
sour.
When a human chews or sucks on any kind of food, the chemicals in that item are released
and they trigger the olfactory receptors in the nose.
Your taste buds and those receptors work together to create that flavor experience.
Those chemical receptors also tell your brain all about it.
Once your brain is on in the act, it releases serotonin to help you understand that what
is in your mouth is, in fact, sour.
If you've ever had a sour beer, you've most likely consumed a beverage with lactic acid.
And that same ingredient is incorporated into some sour candies.
Lactic acid is found in sour beers, along with some dairy products like yogurt and buttermilk.
Brewers use different techniques to introduce lactic acid in beer, leading to the perception
of sourness in the beverage.
Some methods include just adding lactic acid into the beer when it's bottled, but others
utilize it in the brewing process to complement or enhance a sour beer's flavor.
Lactic acid is a bit more of a lingering acid, with a more mild flavor, and it's also often
used in sour candies for balance, similar to how it's used for sour beers.
So, it turns out the beer you're enjoying and the candy your kid is eating have in more
in common than you thought.
Sour candies, especially the extremely sour variety that's popular today, are still relatively
new in comparison to all of the many other selections on the candy market.
One of the reasons for that might be the implied danger of candies with names like Warheads
and Toxic Waste.
So, it took a while for sour candy to catch on.
Eventually, candy that caused a little bit of amusing pain hit the market, beginning
with the cinnamon-infused Atomic Fireball in 1954.
The all-time classic sour candy Lemonhead soon followed in 1962, and customers couldn't
get enough of either of them.
The rise in trick-or-treating at Halloween only added to the boom.
It wasn't until 1993 that the super sour candy craze really kicked off with the debut of
Warheads.
Ever since then, kids and adults alike have been on the lookout for the most sour candy
they can find.
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