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==History== [[File:Japanese confectionery store in "The Great Buddha Sweet Shop" from Akizato Rito's Miyako meisho zue (1787).jpg|thumb|A Japanese vendor selling [[List of Japanese desserts and sweets|sweets]] in "The Great Buddha Sweet Shop" from the ''Miyako meisho zue'' (1787)]] The word candy entered the English language from the Old French ''çucre candi'' ("sugar candy"). The French term probably has earlier roots in the Arabic ''qandi'', Persian ''qand'' and Sanskrit ''khanda'', all words for sugar.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Candy |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/candy |dictionary=[[Online Etymological Dictionary]] |access-date=2025-02-01 |archive-date=2022-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222090228/https://www.etymonline.com/word/candy |url-status=live }}</ref> Sugarcane is [[indigenous (ecology)|indigenous]] to tropical [[South Asia|South]] and [[Southeast Asia]]. Pieces of sugar were produced by boiling sugarcane juice in [[ancient India]] and consumed as ''khanda''.<ref>George Watt (1893), The Economic Products of India, W.H. Allen & Co., Vol 6, Part II, pages 29–30</ref><ref>J.A. Hill (1902), The Anglo-American Encyclopedia, Volume 7, page 725</ref><ref>Thomas E. Furia (1973), CRC Handbook of Food Additives, Second Edition, Volume 1, {{ISBN|978-0849305429}}, page 7 (Chapter 1, by Thomas D. Luckey)</ref><ref>Mary Ellen Snodgrass (2004), Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, {{ISBN|978-1579583804}}, Routledge, pages 145–146</ref><ref>{{cite dictionary |dictionary=[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]] |title=candy |url=https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=candy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920234621/https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=candy |archive-date=2018-09-20 |access-date=2025-02-01}}</ref> Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, the [[Persian people|Persians]], followed by the [[Greeks]], discovered the people in [[India]] and their "reeds that produce [[honey]] without [[bee]]s". They adopted and then spread sugar and [[Sugarcane|sugarcane agriculture]].<ref name=agrisugar1>{{cite web|title=Agribusiness Handbook: Sugar beet white sugar|publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations|year=2009|url=http://www.eastagri.org/publications/pub_docs/4_Sugar_web.pdf|access-date=2014-06-12|archive-date=2015-09-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905234431/http://www.eastagri.org/publications/pub_docs/4_Sugar_web.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Before sugar was readily available, candy was based on [[honey]].<ref>{{cite book |title = Confectionery Products Handbook (Chocolate, Toffees, Chewing Gum & Sugar Free Confectionery)|publisher=Asia Pacific Business Press |date=2013|isbn=9788178331539 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a989AQAAQBAJ |location=India |author=NPCS |page=1}}</ref> Honey was used in [[Ancient Chinese states|Ancient China]], the [[Middle East]], [[Egypt]], [[Greece]] and the [[Roman Empire]] to coat fruits and [[flowers]] to preserve them or to create forms of candy.<ref name="History of Food">{{cite book|last=Toussaint-Samat|first=Maguelonne|title=A History of Food|year=2009|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=New Jersey|isbn = 9781444305142}}</ref> Candy is still served in this form today, though now it is more typically seen as a type of [[garnish (food)|garnish]]. Before the [[Industrial Revolution]], candy was often considered a form of [[medicine]], either used to calm the [[Human digestive system|digestive system]] or cool a [[sore throat]]. In the [[Middle Ages]] candy appeared on the tables of only the most wealthy at first. At that time, it began as a combination of [[spice]]s and sugar used as an aid to [[digestion]]. Banquet hosts typically served these types of 'candies' at [[Confectionery in the English Renaissance|banquets]] for their guests. One of these candies, sometimes called ''chamber spice'', was made with [[cloves]], ginger, [[aniseed]], [[juniper berries]], almonds and [[pine kernels]] dipped in melted sugar.<ref name="History of Food" /> The [[Middle English]] word ''candy'' began to be used in the late 13th century.<ref name="OED-candy">{{OEtymD|candy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sugarcane: Saccharum Officinarum |publisher=USAID, Govt of United States |year=2006 |page=1 (Chapter 7) |url=http://www1.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/environment/docs/ag&environ/Sugarcane.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106015828/http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/environment/docs/ag%26environ/Sugarcane.pdf |archive-date=November 6, 2013 }}</ref> The first candy came to [[United States|America]] during the early 18th century from [[Great Britain|Britain]] and [[France]]. Only a few of the early colonists were proficient in sugar work and sugary treats were generally only enjoyed by the very wealthy. Even the simplest form of candy – [[rock candy]], made from [[Crystallization|crystallized]] sugar – was considered a luxury.<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite web|last=Woloson |first=Wendy |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America |url=http://www.oxford-americanfoodanddrink.com/entry?entry=t170.e0127 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=18 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006100921/http://www.oxford-americanfoodanddrink.com/entry?entry=t170.e0127 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 }}</ref> ===Industrial Revolution=== The candy business underwent a drastic change in the 1830s when technological advances and the availability of sugar opened up the market. The new market was not only for the enjoyment of the rich but also for the pleasure of the working class. There was also an increasing market for children. While some fine confectioners remained, the [[candy store]] became a favorite of the child of the [[Working class in the United States|American working class]]. Penny candies epitomized this transformation of candy. [[Penny candy]] became the first material good that children spent their own money on. For this reason, candy store-owners relied almost entirely on the business of children to keep them running. Even penny candies were directly descended from [[Throat lozenge|medicated lozenges]] that held bitter medicine in a hard sugar coating.<ref name="Refined Tastes">{{cite book|last=Woloson|first=Wendy|title=Refined Tastes|year=2002|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore}}</ref> In 1847, the invention of the [[candy press]] (also known under the surprising name of a ''toy machine'') made it possible to produce multiple shapes and sizes of candy at once. In 1851, confectioners began to use a revolving steam pan to assist in boiling sugar. This transformation meant that the candy maker was no longer required to continuously stir the boiling sugar. The heat from the surface of the pan was also much more evenly distributed and made it less likely the sugar would burn. These innovations made it possible for only one or two people to successfully run a candy business.<ref name=Encyclopedia /> [[File:Our Mutual Friend by Joseph Keppler 1885 Puck 2017011.tif|thumb |right|''Our Mutual Friend'', January 7, 1885, satirical cartoon by [[Joseph Keppler]], warning of the dangers of color additives used in candy.]] As the path from producer to market became increasingly complicated, many foods were affected by [[adulteration]] and the addition of [[Food additive|additives]] which ranged from relatively harmless ingredients, such as cheap [[Corn starch|cornstarch]] and [[corn syrup]], to poisonous ones. Some manufacturers produced bright colors in candy by the addition of hazardous substances for which there was no legal regulation: green ([[chromium(III) oxide]] and [[copper acetate]]), red ([[lead(II,IV) oxide]] and [[mercury sulfide]]), yellow ([[lead chromate]]) and white ([[chalk]], [[arsenic trioxide]]).<ref name="Distillations"/> In an 1885 cover cartoon for ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'', [[Joseph Keppler]] satirized the dangers of additives in candy by depicting the "mutual friendship" between striped candy, doctors, and [[Sexton (office)|gravediggers]]. By 1906, research into the dangers of additives, exposés of the food industry, and public pressure led to the passage of the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]], the first federal United States law to regulate food and drugs, including candy.<ref name="Distillations">{{cite journal|last1=Hansen|first1=Bert|date=2017|title=Our Mutual Friend|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/our-mutual-friend|journal=Distillations|volume=3|issue=2|pages=10–11|access-date=April 17, 2018|archive-date=June 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602060326/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/our-mutual-friend|url-status=live}}</ref>
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