essence of wintergreen and you get something startling: a candy that seems to give off sparks when you eat it! When highly orderly sucrose crystals are fractured between the teeth, the sudden split leaves an imbalance of electrical charge between the two pieces: there are more electrons on one side than the other The electrons then jump the gap to the more positively charged piece En route, they collide with nitrogen molecules in the air, which then discharge the sudden jolt of kinetic energy in the form of light energy The same kinds of electron jumping and colliding produce lightning strikes between electrically charged clouds and the earth Of course, sugar crystals give off a much weaker glow than true lightning And much of that glow is in the invisible ultraviolet part of the light spectrum Here’s where the wintergreen plays a role Its aromatic essence, methyl salicylate, is fluorescent: it absorbs the invisible ultraviolet rays and re-radiates them in the visible part of the light spectrum It thus amplifies the dimmer sucrose glow to the point that, in a dark room, we can see blue flashes when the candy is crushed Chewy Jelly and Paste Candies; Marzipan A number of different candies are made by incorporating a sugar syrup into a solution of starch, gelatin, pectin, or plant gums, and then allowing the mixture to solidify into a dense, chewy mass In Japan and elsewhere in Asia, sweets are often gelled with the seaweed extract agar (p 609), which is effective in unusually small amounts (as little as 0.1% of the mix) Turkish Delight Turkish delight, or lokum rahat in Turkish, is one of the most venerable of this kind, having been made in the Middle East and the Balkans for centuries It is thickened with starch (around 4%), ... unusually small amounts (as little as 0.1% of the mix) Turkish Delight Turkish delight, or lokum rahat in Turkish, is one of the most venerable of this kind, having been made in the Middle East and the Balkans... the candy is crushed Chewy Jelly and Paste Candies; Marzipan A number of different candies are made by incorporating a sugar syrup into a solution of starch, gelatin, pectin, or plant gums, and then...it absorbs the invisible ultraviolet rays and re-radiates them in the visible part of the light spectrum It thus amplifies the dimmer sucrose glow to the point that, in a dark