I’m in the process of purchasing a refurbished Rose Forgrove 22B machine for my artisanal candy company - I’ve been wanting one for years, but just as I was about to make my deposit on a machine, I spoke to another small candy company and they told me the 22B has been a headache to deal with - lots of maintenance, issues with it not twisting the candies all the way, ripping wrappers - and now I’m paralyzed by fear! This would be the biggest purchase I’ve ever made for the biz and I don’t want to be cursing myself for years.

There are some differences between me & the other biz - they hand cut their caramels, so they aren’t uniform in size…my caramels are deposited into a mold.

I would be using it for two different sized candies, so i would also be switching out the plate regularly - I was told it takes 10 minutes to do, but this other company said it is really complicated and they don’t switch them out bc of all the parts.

I’m wondering if anyone out there has any experience with these machines and could give me their opinion? Is it worth it?

I’ve been hand wrapping my candies for 9 years and I really need a break!! (And a better profit margin…)

My partner and I have been making pectin gummies at home for two summers, but it's getting prohibitive to do without specialized equipment or investing crazy amounts of time! Do you guys have any suggestions for where to start scaling up? Should we buy our own equipment? Or alternatively, any advice on how to find manufacturers?

If relevant, we live on the west coast of Canada.

Thanks :)

I made pumpkin spice marshmallows a week ago with:

• pumpkin puree
• marshmallow root cold infusion in water
• pumpkin pie spice
• gelatin
• vanilla
• allulose and monkfruit sweeteners
• maple syrup
• water
• salt

They turned out super moist and sticky to begin with, and I hadn’t finished cutting them up because I’m planning to use them in another desert recipe today.

They’ve been sitting on the counter in the baking pan with foil over them, but not in an air tight container…are they still ok or could they be spoiled?

I want the texture of roasted almonds and toffee to be similar. Less nuts in hard candy. More Candy bar style.

I want the yield to be a softer toffee - still has crunch/crack, but is more pleasant/less sticky to eat. I want the crunch to come more from the almonds than the sugar. I was asking around about adding cocoa butter or palm kernel oil to lower the melting point; achieve a "melt-in-your-mouth" effect while still crunchy with sugar and nuts. I did a some research and adding heavy cream seemed to be the simplest answer - on top of temp/time/technique - to add more heft in fluff (cream) to chew. I'll be making a very large batch so homogeneity is important; Soy Lecithin has came to my attention as it may help after adding more cream and increasing the temperature toward soft crack.

Here's what I have so far:

2c sugar (I'm using raw sugar)

1c butter

1/4c cream

1tsp salt

1/tsp baking powder

1/2tsp vanilla paste

1.25c Almonds

Acquiring Tate and Lyles Golden Syrup.

I use the 16 pound poly container of Tate and Lyle’s Golden Syrup for my products. I am finding it harder and harder to get my hands on. Supermarket Italy quick carrying it. Amazon will only let me order two at a time. Foodies will only let me order four at a time. Does anyone know where I can get a consistent supply of Tate and Lyle’s golden syrup. ASR group manufactures the syrup but they will not respond to emails or contact request.

Hi, I made fudge for the first time a while back and i got something wrong - i imagine perhaps not a high enough temperature / not long enough at that temp. I rectified it the next time cos: perfectionist tendencies lol. However, i actually preferred the 'incorrect' version - paler, more chewy, less granular - sort of a hybrid of fudge meets caramel. Can anyone help me with how i can deliberately recreate that? Is it the lack of sustained high temp (10 mins of boiling with the mixture reaching 113-115, is what the recipe says).

Thanks in advance!

Hey all!

I'm making pectin gummies and I poured them at 72 brix and 195 degrees F into silicone molds.

I let them sit for 30 minutes, then sugar coated them, and put them on trays in the curing room.

The curing room has a massive dehumidifier so it's running at 35% humidity but 93 degrees F.

When I first sugared the gummies, the water activity level was .69 ; then i measured it this morning after 17 hours at 35% humidity and 93 degrees F and it read .79

I asked ChatGPT how to deal with this and it said increased temperature increases water activity readings and that I should let them sit out for a bit to cool down before taking the reading.

Questions:

1. What temperature do y'all take your water activity level readings at?

2. What do y'all use to make the gummies pop up easily?

3. If you have ideas for getting the humidity down without making the room too hot, I'm all ears.

Thank you!!!

I need to flavor dextrose.

I’m making Sweeties, flavored dextrose pressed into tablets you chew.

I’ve tried flavoring the dextrose with Lorann oil flavoring but it doesn’t seem to mix evenly. Is there a powdered base flavoring I can use that would work better? If I’m supposed to be using the Lorann oil flavoring, what’s the best machine to mix with? Looking to mix 5-20 lbs at a time of dextrose + oil flavoring.

Is there anything I need to prevent mold for long term storage? Any info on malic acid / citrus acid for certain flavors to bring the flavor out?

Looking to pay for a consultant to help me get everything together to create my own Sweeties on a small commercial scale.

Thanks

I was asked to make little chocolate candies for the school this year. Normally I make caramel corn. I have made the candies before using chocolate.

They bought the supplies and they included chocolate chips for the chocolate. They don't taste bad at all, but is there a way to doctor them up at all so they taste better? Like better chocolate and not just chocolate chips melted into candy?

Thank you for any input.

Hey all! My buddy grows his own scorpion peppers and had some left over this season so he dehydrated them and is sending them to me with the hopes that I will use them to make candies for him.

So, aside from a spicy chocolate bar, what other ideas do you folks have?

Also, I'm not a big on spice and I'm worried about over or under doing it on t he candies. Does anyone have any tips for how to make sure I'm doing that?

I’m not a candy maker but would love to experiment with making a sour powder for some gummy bears I have.

I’m only going to dip a few at a time so I’m not too worried about making a wax coating or having them get slimy.

I saw a recipe on here that called for fumaric acid but it seems that acid is a bit harder to easily obtain in small food grade quantities so I’d prefer something that uses malic acid or citric acid as the base.

I’m not sure the flavor differences for these acids but I want something that pickers your lips. Probably the most similar sour level I can think of would be sour skittles and albanese sour gummies

I'm not ready to invest in a Thermapen. 🙃 Thanks!

Trying to get my start at candy making, and realised something. Is there a discord server for candy makers?

Hello. I finally got myself a cotton candy machine to use on events and party's. I've already read alot about making my own flavored sugar and see there are many ways. The most common way in proffesional use seems to be using flossine to mix the sugar. Others seem to just use strong extracts to give the sugar a flavor.

Anyone have personal experience with flavoring sugar specifically for cotton candy? What works best in terms of flavoring and what type of sugar would work best for this, some suggest large crystalized sugar while other suggest as fine as possible?

I saw LorAnn oils have super strength flavor extracts, thought about getting those before reading about flossine but it seems it also has alot more flavors then flossine so that would be my first option if flossine isn't really obligatory or perhaps there is some flavorless form of it that i can use for that?

Any suggestions?

Hey I made a post earlier I can link it below about creating a gummy worm using bulk powder or possibly some form of high calorie powder and creating a bulking gummy. If you can help with this project feel free to reach out and discuss further in detail!

https://www.reddit.com/r/foodhacks/comments/1ghiwao/making_a_gummy_worm_using_bulk_powder_food/?rdt=56693

Hi,
I have been scouring the internet for food grade ammonium chloride so that I can make sugar free salty licorice. All the products I found are NOT for human consumption. :( I don't get it - Scandinavians can easily buy it in their countries, and the same applies to the Netherlands and Germany.

Does anyone here know where I could possibly buy it? It is also called Sal Ammoniac, or Salmiac.
Would be so grateful for help!!!

Listen I’ve been craving these since like 2006. I’m willing to do anything to taste them again.

I need help from candy maker in learning some aspect in chewing gum brand.

I’ve been hunting for gum base for over a week, but Google keeps coming up empty for smaller quantities.

Anyone know where I can get gum base in quantities under 100kg at a reasonable price?

I’m working on a chewing gum that not only gives you an energy boost but also supports dental health—a portable, healthy energy boost! Yet, sourcing the key ingredient is proving impossible!

Any help would be appreciated.

Did anyone make candy to hand out this year? Or past years even?

I’ve made pralines before and they’ve all come out perfectly until this batch. I have no clue what I did wrong, but my pralines look like they set, but they’re sticky/gooey on the outside layer rather than matte and smooth. I can pick them up and they hold and have a bite as if they’re set tho I have no clue what went wrong. Maybe it could be the humidity but I can’t tell tbh. Should I toss it back in the pot? Help 😭

Ive failed 5 times at making this taffy recipe that I found on youtube. Which is 2/3 cup corn syrup, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1tsp salt, 1tbsp butter and 1tbsp of cornstartch

Every time it either comes out too soft or too hard. I got close once when I reached 252F but it still turned out too soft, softer than laffy taffy I was not happy with the result. So the next batch I brought up to 254 maybe 255F (which is what the recipe calls for) and that was WAY to hard, I even started pulling earlier than the other tries but couldn't it was too stiff.

Is anyone able to help me out. What am I doing wrong here?
Maybe a different recipe?

Making coffee & matcha gummies for a school project business ^^ So far, we’ve gotten the gummy chewiness and consistency, but we’ve found that the taste isn’t as strong as before :((

I’m also having trouble figuring out how (how long, what steps, materials, etc) to mass dry gummies at home and make them not sticky.

In our former tries, there were less gelatin and that resulted in firm jello(?), but the taste was really good and the flavors could truly be enjoyed. But in the recent tries with the chewiness and firmness we’ve been aiming for, where more gelatin was added, the taste seems to have been sacrificed and it’s hard to taste upon the first bite until you chew for a bit (but even after chewing, the taste is minimal).

I’m thinking it may be linked to how our flavoring (the espresso/matcha powder + milk + cream & other additional flavors) has a considerable liquid quantity. So far the ratio is that the flavoring liquid mixture is 2-3 tbsp more than the gelatin… Though not sure if the glucose syrup has a part in the ratio.

Is there anything that can be done?

In summary, I need tips with:

1. Stronger taste for gummies while still maintaining the ideal chewiness & firmness
2. How to mass dry the gummies at home
3. Reduce stickiness

The general recipe includes gelatine, glucose syrup, espresso (about 8-10 tbsp so far) or matcha powder (liquifying it with 2 tbsp water for 4 tbsp matcha), cream, milk, white sugar, and additional flavors like powders or syrups. We’ve been preparing the sugar mixture + flavorings in one pot while the gelatin is mixed with water in a separate pot.

Hey I’ve recently been trying to inquire about creating a gummy candy that is higher in calories but still somewhat healthy and uses vegan ingredients such as aga aga and monk fruit instead of gelatin or corn syrup. For reference I’ve seen thc gummy worms that are decent sized but are 90 calories each (edipure) I’m basically trying to create a high calorie gummy worm with like 2-3 grams of protein. If any food scientist can help chime in on how to do this at home since all factories I’ve reached out too are flimsy and don’t get back to me properly.