Some of civilization’s greatest inventions were made around the same time, by people
separated by continents and oceans.
Great minds, thinking alike, separately dreamed up great ideas, from calculus… to telephones…
to—most importantly—candy.
The earliest candy treats were made by Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and Chinese who
used honey to coat and preserve fruits, nuts, and flower petals.
The first sugary sweets were crafted in India around 500 BC.
To more easily transport sugarcane syrup, manufacturers boiled it, then put it into
bowls to cool and harden.
This formed a crystallized substance with a suspiciously familiar-sounding name: khanda.
Props to the sneaky guy who stole the first lick...
Europeans’ sweet teeth didn’t start coming in until the Middle Ages, when soldiers returned
from the Crusades reminiscing of the so-called “sweet salts” and “honey powders”
of the Holy Land.
Eventually, sugarcane spread from India and Indonesia to fill fields not only in Europe,
but also across the Atlantic in the New World.
Even then, candy was still mostly a luxury of the wealthy until the Industrial Revolution,
when steam-powered inventions made it easier and faster to make candy.
Once it was cheaper and more widely available to working-class people...
The candy universe exploded into a million colors…
Shapes…
Sizes…
Melt-points…
Crunchabilities... and Species.