Cotton Candy - A Fun Summer Treat

Nothing says summer fun like cotton candy. This is the treat we snack on at the Boardwalk or go crazy for at the fair. It's a fun and sweet remnant of childhood innocence. No matter how glum you are, the sight of cotton candy always brings forth a smile.

Cotton candy was on e o f those great 1904 World's Fair inventions. It was orginally called fairy floss and is still called that today in Austrailia (the Brits call it candy floss). However earlier forms of existed in Renaissance Italy where cooked sugar strands were fluffed with a fork. By the 1890's candy makers William Morrison and John C. Wharton invented a machine where sugar, coloring and flavoring could be melted and then , using centrifugal force pushes this out through mesh. The result was a cottony form of the sugar , but it was still called fairy floss until the 1920's when it was changed to cotton candy. There have bene breakthroughs during the 1940s' in the machinery. By the 1970's cotton candy machines were automated. This meant mass packaging and people could enjoy it year round in vacuum sealed bags.Nutritionally the stuff has zero fat and only 120 calories per serving. It's the perfect snack for the diet conscious, basically fun without the guit.

In recent years upscale restuarants have redisocvered cotton candy as a side dish or as a dessert. There is a saffron infused version that has accompanied fish as well as a basil and tomato version served over pasta.(strange but true and both are big hits). For dessert a few Manhattan eateries take a cloud of marshamallow flavored cotton candy and put it over hot cocoa or chocolate pudding. It also has topped creme brluee. Some restaurants make fruit flavored (think raspberry mango or cherry lime)mini sticks and serve them for dessert.

Whatever type of cotton candy you have wherever you have it , it's sure to make you smile. It's just the perfect summer fun food whether you're strolling on the Boardwalk or sitting down in a fancy restaurant.